214 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



May the young growth soon hides the hard mark of the shears. 

 Pretty as it is in certain gardens, the drawbacks to Box as a flower- 

 garden edging are serious; it requires much labour to keep it in 

 order, and not every garden workman can clip it well. It is a 

 harbour for slugs and weeds, drying and starving the soil near, 

 whereas the stone edging keeps the soil moist and comforts the 

 rock flowers that crawl over it. We cannot allow dwarf and creep- 

 ing plants to crawl over the Box, or they will scald and injure 

 it, but with the stone, we are free in all ways, and get a pretty 

 effect when Pinks and other dwarf plants, crossing the stone edging 

 here and there, push out into the walk itself. I like Box best as a 



[P 



Ivy edging. 



tall, stout edging or low hedge, used in a bold way as high Rose- 

 mary edgings are used in southern gardens about 18 inches high, 

 or even a little higher, to enclose playgrounds or separate gardens 

 or to mark an interesting site as that of the old house at Castlewellan. 

 Sometimes old and neglected Box edgings grown into low hedges 

 are pretty in a garden, as in George Washington's old home at 

 Mount Vernon in Virginia. And low hedges of Box are now and 

 then a good aid near the flower garden, as at Panshanger. 



Among other edgings made of woody or shrubby things, we 

 have the Yew, which bears clipping into edgings a foot high, and 



which might be worth using in some positions, 



Ivy, Rosemary, though much clipping of this sort causes much 



and other edgings, labour and to me sorrow. Ivy is more precious 



for its shoots, which garland the earth as well as 

 wall or tree. It is more used abroad than in Britain, the freshness 

 of its green being more valued where good turf is less common, and 

 Ivy is of the highest value as an edging in various ways, but better as 

 a garland round a plot or belt of shrubs than near flower-beds, and as 



