The Livable House 



and natural-looking planting than one of evergreens alone. This 

 is true of rhododendrons as well as of conifers, for a house which 

 rises up out of a heavy somber bank of broad-leaved evergreens 

 fits as poorly into the landscape as one whose base is concealed 

 by ranks of little conifers. 



Some of the berried shrubs which add to the agreeable appear- 

 ance of a foundation planting, as much by their graceful habit 

 of branching as by their colored fruits, are the barberries — Thun- 

 bergii and vulgaris; high bush cranberry (viburnum opulus), 

 which provides from its bright clusters food for the birds all 

 winter long; other members of the viburnum family: dentatum or 

 arrow-wood, plicatum, tomentosum, and Carlesii, which has a 

 wonderfully fragrant flower; the honeysuckles, Indian currant, 

 and snowberry; ilex Sieboldii (a little known but very brilliant 

 berried shrub) ; and the red stemmed dogwoods. Of these, ber- 

 beris vulgaris, all the viburnums, the honeysuckles, and dogwoods 

 grow to be big shrubs and ought therefore to be planted where 

 they will not interfere with windows. Another shrub with an 

 impossible name but with the unusual possession of turquoise col- 

 ored berries is Symplocos Crataegoides. Its berries ripen at the 

 same time as those of the Tartarian honeysuckle, and the two. 

 shrubs make a brilliant combination. Most of these shrubs have 

 attractive flowers as well as berries, and thus provide at the same 

 time for the summer and winter appearance of the base planting. 

 A few shrubs interesting chiefly for their summer dress do not 

 come amiss in any group near the house, and some of them look 

 especially well with the dark foliage of evergreens: lilacs, white 



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