114 The Landscape Gardening Book 



evasion, quite as much as you would have cheated yourself on 

 your English, if you had been allowed free rein as a youngster. 

 At last, however, with the plan and sky line outlined before 

 us, we can go on to the joyous phase of shrub planting — the 

 phase which has to do with their greenery and their flowers and 

 all their lovely poesy, the phase which is commonly considered 

 to be real gardening. 



Briefly, there are five things constantly to have in mind when 

 grouping shrubs; their height, their time of flowering, their 

 flower color, their habit, and their preference for sun or shade. 

 And there are two things to be aimed at in every mixed shrub- 

 bery border; succession of bloom and harmonious coloring. 

 The profile drawing will show locations as to height, the ground 

 plan locations as to spread — or habit. These two are therefore 

 practically disposed of and predetermined, so the questions of 

 inflorescence and sun or shade are all that one need trouble 

 about. The plans here given are detailed for sun; partial 

 shade will not require any change however, and complete shade 

 is a circumstance that is hardly likely to arise in a border of this 

 extent. 



Finally, as the last word, let me urge the open center. This is 

 more important than grouping, or bloom, or sky line, or any- 

 thing else. Always confine shrub masses to outer edges or 

 boundaries, leaving broad sweeps of lawn framed by them, but 

 never cut into by either beds or solitary bushes. The single 

 shrub which the plan shows at the end of the mass, and the one 

 isolated from it, yet a part of it, midway, are not exceptions to 

 this rule, for neither of these breaks the continuity of the mass. 

 That is the test always — the continuity of the mass — whether that 

 mass is lawn, flower border, shrub border, or woods and thicket. 



