Shrubs 109 



These may be exaggerated examples, to be sure, but they 

 illustrate the point we need to impress upon our minds — that 

 individuahsm is not the garden's ideal. And though they are 

 exaggerated, they are after all only the result of going a few 

 steps farther along the path of individual culture than the usual 

 practice goes ; the practice which aims to plant shrubs in isola- 

 tion "so they can develop." 



Any view that persistently puts the development of a shrub 

 before other considerations governing its location, is a mistaken 

 one ; and until we once and for all get over cherishing such views 

 we shall continue to go wrong in design, and to fail in attaining 

 our proper effects. Abandon completely and absolutely the 

 mental picture that dissociates "shrub" from "shrubbery," 

 and create in its place a picture which unites the two so closely 

 that you will come to feel them one object, and synonymous 

 terms. 



Then live up to this creation determinedly, and let no remarks 

 of misguided neighbors — however well-meaning they may be — 

 about things choking to death and having no chance to grow, 

 shake your resolution nor divert you from your course. They 

 may think you crazy — that is to be -expected — ^but you will know 

 that you are not. And time, and your grounds, whether little 

 or big, will be your vindication ; so what matter what they think ? 



It is very simple if one wishes to reason it out. Any plant 

 set in an open space and encouraged to " develop, " is but a few 

 steps short of the plant trained with the avowed purpose of 

 producing phenomenal flowers or fruits: phenomenal flowers 

 or fruits are of absolutely no merit as garden ornaments, and the 

 plant trained to produce them suffers a loss in the process 

 exactly corresponding to their gain. Hence it follows that a 

 plant — or, to speak more definitely, a shrub — set singly, as a 



