RIGHT USE OF FLOWERING SHRUBS 41 



parently accidental beauty in every garden design, 

 however formal, as in every picture, however sys- 

 tematically composed. Without it there seems to 

 be no inspiration and no spontaneity, nothing but 

 a timid anxiety for correctness. And here, perhaps, 

 we may have arrived at a principle for the use of the 

 larger and nobler flowering trees and shrubs, at any 

 rate in more formal and confined gardens. They 

 should be employed not systematically, like flowers 

 or shrubs of utility, but as accidents and surprises, 

 to enliven the formality of the whole. Needless to 

 say, they must be so employed with great restraint. 

 Accidents and surprises, if too often repeated, lose 

 their effect. But the difficulty in every design is to 

 combine restraint with abundance, to know where 

 to be lavish and where to be sparing. Flowering 

 shrubs are most beautiful objects, at any rate, when 

 in flower, and some gardeners, therefore, are tempted 

 to plant them in abundance; but the better course 

 seems to be, at least in small or formal gardens, to 

 use them sparingly in combination with an abundance 

 of herbaceous and other flowering plants. There 

 must be a sacrifice somewhere, especially nowadays, 

 when we have such an infinite variety of all kinds of 

 ornamental plants; and the sacrifice should be made 

 on some principle. Now, there is a principle in the 

 sparing use of flowering shrubs, because they are, as 

 we have said, too large for units in any ordered com- 

 bination, except in a very large garden. Therefore, 

 they should be used as accidents. 



