loo The Landscape Gardening Book 



bearers. The first— the youthful— is regular, pyramidal and 

 somewhat formal ; the last— the mature— is rugged and irregular 

 and altogether quite different from anything to be imagined, 

 judging from the earlier. With evergreens, where we are plant- 

 ing for all time, these differences are very important. 



The period of transition from symmetry to irregularity comes 

 at about the twentieth to the twenty-fifth year in some, up to the 

 fortieth or fiftieth in others. Hence it is apparent that not 

 until a variety has been grown for fifty years in a given soil and 

 climate, can it be said positively whether or no it is a success 

 under those particular conditions. Fifty years hence seems a 

 long way ofT in this day and age of haste — and of course it is a 

 long way off— but building a landscape is not a task of to-day 

 nor of this year ; indeed it is not a task that the builder can 

 much more than begin. Even with wisdom and industry beyond 

 price at his command, he still must wait on Time. 



And Time goes straight ahead, even though the builder's 

 work is ill, quite as bent on finishing it as though it were well, 

 and quite as determinedly piUng emphasis onto every point 

 where emphasis can be made to lodge. This is the thought 

 that ought always to be before us— this is the thought that, 

 guided the builders whose work now remains in the wonderful 

 old gardens of the Old World. So, though we may plan for 

 to-day, and this year, and the next, of course— plan to get all 

 into the present and out of it too, that is possible — we shovud 

 plan ahead at the same time. Patience and this looking ahead 

 are always essential in gardening, but especially so when the 

 subject of the work is evergreens. Keep an eye constantly to 

 the future. Have the quick -growing, short-lived trees for the 

 immediate need, but do not omit planting the slower-growing, 

 long-lived species to take their places, in the course of time. 



