FLOWERING SHRUBS AND TREES, AND THEIR ARTISTIC USE. 61 



the taller hardy Heaths, Escallonia, Ledum, alpine and wild forms 

 of Rhododendron, Sweet Gale, Star bush, and various Laurustinus, 

 leaving out not a few which thrive only in the warmer districts. 

 Charming gardens might be made of such bushes, not lumped 

 together, but in open groups, with the more beautiful American 

 hardy flowers between them, such as the Wood Lily and Mocassin 

 flower, many rare Lilies, and beautiful bulbous flowers of all seasons. 

 The light and shade and variety in such beds of choice evergreens 

 and flowers mingled are charming, and the plan would be a per- 

 manent one as it would tend to abolish the never-ending digging 

 in the flower garden. Beds of flowering shrubs in the flower garden 

 are not always so well suited for small gardens ; but in bold ones, 

 now naked in winter, it would make them sightly even at that 

 season, and much easier to deal with in early summer. 



Those of the hybrid sorts are too much used, and, as they are 



nearly always grafted, the common stock that bears them in the 



end kills the plant it should support, and so we 



Rhododendrons, too often see the common pontic kind. Yet there 



are many beautiful things among these hybrids. 



The good colours are well worth picking out from them, and the 



aim of the planter should be to show the habit and form of the 



plant. This does not mean that they may not be grouped or massed 



just as before, but openings of all sizes should be left among them 



for light and shade, and for handsome herbaceous plants that die 



down in the winter, thus allowing the full light for half the year 



to evergreens. 



In the south and west the various Arbutus are charming for 

 lawns and ravines, and for sheltering the flower garden, as is also 

 the sweet Bay Laurel, but the Common Cherry Laurel and the 

 Portugal should not be planted near anything precious. 



These are, considering their great number and variety, perhaps 



the most precious flowering shrubs we have ; they are fine in form 



of bush, even when they get little freedom, and 



Hardy Azaleas, superb in colour, the foliage in autumn, too, being 



rich in colour in sunny places. The Hydrangeas 



are noble plants in warm valleys, and on soils where they are not 



too often cut down by the winter ; not only the common one of the 



markets, which, in soils where it turns blue, is so effective in the 



garden, but a variety of good kinds, among which should always 



be the oak-leaved Hydrangea, as old plants of it are so handsome. 



As these are plants that cannot be grown everywhere, this is a 



good reason why they should be made much of where the climate 



suits them. There are few garden sights more interesting than groups 



of Hydrangeas well grown and placed, and it is one we rarely see. 



