n6 FLOWER GARDENING 



large enough to use evergreen conifers, it is best 

 expressed by box and ilex; though conifers of 

 very small size may be allowed with equal propri- 

 ety to pass as shrubs. Box is the most beautiful 

 edging and normally is very hardy. As shrubs 

 go, it is expensive; but with five-inch edging at 

 three dollars a hundred and five dollars for fine 

 single specimens about four feet high, the price is 

 not prohibitive. Both the English holly (Ilex aqui- 

 folia, var. Hodglnsii) and the American holly (I. 

 opaca) may be had in four-foot specimens for about 

 half the price. Clipped California privet of the 

 same size costs five dollars or so for a pyramid 

 or globe; the shrub itself is cheap, but the train- 

 ing has to be paid for. 



For less formal or wholly unconventional ef- 

 fects there are more than a dozen evergreen shrubs 

 whose worth in the garden itself does not begin 

 to be appreciated. Foremost among them, because 

 superb bloom is added to strongly effective foli- 

 age, are certain rhododendrons and the mountain 

 laurel (Kalmia latifolia). These have thrived in 

 a full exposure; but if the garden has no shaded 

 spot, they are safer when planted where the sun 

 does not beat down on them relentlessly in sum- 

 mer and the force of the winter's winds is broken 

 by protecting trees and shrubs on the North. 

 Moreover, such a situation, perhaps on the edge 

 of the garden, best becomes them. Both require 

 soil made fibrous by peat or leaf mold; also a 

 heavy winter mulch of leaves, to be left on as a 



