MY SHRUBS 



INTRODUCTION 



" /^^ HRUBS," said George Nicholson, thirty years ago, " do 

 ^^^ not generally receive the attention they deserve." The 

 ^^^ statement continues to be true, though things are more 

 hopeful for these plants ; they are coming into their own gradually, 

 and the shrubbery begins to be a valued feature of the garden, 

 instead of that worthless jungle with which our fathers were 

 content. Your true gardener naturally seeks and aspires to the 

 unattainable, and since my patch is but little larger than a table- 

 cloth, my desire has always been towards trees. This is 

 the normal ambition of people with small gardens, while others, 

 who possess ancestral acres, and could display a forest and plant 

 pinetums for posterity, will be found to cultivate the moraine, and 

 desire nothing more than enough limestone or granite chips to 

 fill a hatbox. For such is our contrary human nature. 



Trees, then, being out of the question here, I have bowed 

 to fate in this matter, and fallen back upon shrubs, or trees that 

 will preserve shrubby dimensions, until my concern with them 

 has ended and I go where our " half-hardies " cease from troub- 

 ling and the Alpines are at rest. Even shrubs cannot receive all 

 the accommodation they desire ; but, on the principle that a lord 

 would rather be elbowed by another lord than a chimney-sweep 

 or a coal-heaver, I only suffer my plants to be hustled by their 



