245 



FRUIT TREES AS ORNAMENTS IN SUBURBAN GARDENS. 



The prevailing idea of suburban 

 gardeners is to secure in tbeir 

 grounds as many pleasing effects as 

 possible ; bence, ornamental trees 

 usually take precedence of fruit 

 trees, and tbe lawn, tbe parterre, and 

 tbe shrubbery consume so much 

 space that the orchard and kitchen 

 garden are oftentimes robbed of their 

 due importance, and have less care 

 than they are entitled to as contribu- 

 tories to domestic comfort. It seems 

 that we have yet to learn how to in- 

 corporate fruit trees inscenes designed 

 primarily for the gratification of the 

 eye ; how to grow apples, pears, 

 plums, cherries, etc., etc., in such a 

 way that the trees will harmonize 

 with flowing lines and verdurous 

 masses, with bold breadths of lawn 

 and with gay groups of flowers. 

 Yet to accomplish this would be no 

 new thing. In the old English gar- 

 dens, useful trees were grouped in 

 park-like groups on spacious lawns 

 within view from the windows of the 

 dwelling, and we need only to revive 

 certain features of ancient gardening 

 to accomplish the double purpose of 

 rendering the grounds richly orna- 

 mental, and at the same time pro- 

 ductive of ample supplies of the best 

 fruits. Coming to particulars, what 

 can be more beautiful than the bloom 

 of our hardy fruit trees ? and what 

 more beautiful in many instances 

 tban trees of graceful outline laden 

 with ripe fruits ? To carry the idea 

 into practice needs some knowledge 

 of the habits of the varieties ; but 

 with this knowledge any skilful 

 planter will find it an easy matter 

 either to associate fruit trees with 

 highly-decorated grounds, or with the 

 less pretentious scenes that may be 

 classed as rustic in their character. 

 Now suppose the ornamental to 

 be considered carefully, why should 

 not fruit trees be planted on lawns 

 and on the margins of walks, and be 

 made the staple subjects in retreats 

 and shrubbery masses in place of 

 many subjects that at present occupy 

 space, and consume good soil, without 

 giving any more pleasure to the eye 



than some varieties of fruit trees, 

 while they are altogether unproduc- 

 tive of useful results ? There are 

 many varieties of dessert pears that 

 make most beautiful lawn trees, and 

 readily conform to any required style 

 of decoration by the facility with 

 which they may be trained as rigid 

 distaffs, close formal pyramids, or 

 free and diffuse bushes. 



Standard and half-standard trees 

 will, of course, be requisite in reason- 

 able numbers where any extent of 

 ground is to be planted on the plan 

 of combining orchard and pleasure- 

 ground in one. Large trees are of 

 immense importance in giving dignity 

 to a garden ; indeed, without them, 

 the most elaborate and costly furnish- 

 ing becomes tame and thin, and the 

 otherwise skilfully-drawn curves and 

 well-balanced contrasts only vex the 

 eye by suggesting that other elements 

 are needful in the composition of a 

 picture. Bushes carry the eye up 

 from the ground, and prevent it 

 ranging unreasonably far in quest of 

 " something it knows not what," all 

 the while troubled with the hunger of 

 empty space ; and when the eye has 

 been thus raised from the dead level, 

 it loves to range in mid-air in the 

 admiration of larger masses, and at 

 last takes within its scope the tallest 

 trees, the feathery tops of which 

 carry it towards heaven, rejoicing in 

 the vastness and the freedom of the 

 upper air, and the azure of the sky. 

 You have many a time seen in old 

 orchards huge pear and apple trees 

 of such noble outlines, so bold yet so 

 symmetrical, that you could hope for 

 nothing finer iu a well-kept park. 

 The oaks, and elms, and beeches have 

 their proper places in park and wood- 

 land scenery, and, in the shape of 

 timber, promise to pay the nation for 

 their sustenance ; but in gardens, 

 trees of smaller dimension, yet real 

 and picturesque a3 trees, are more 

 appropriate ; and I counsel all who 

 are planting, or about to plant, to 

 consider how far fruit trees have 

 claims upon them in preference to 

 limes, chesnuts, poplars, and other 



