STUDIES IN GARDENING 



We are all familiar with the accidental use of "orna- 

 mental conifers" in landscape gardens, and most of 

 us are tired of it. It is usually unhappy, because 

 these conifers are too formal and not interesting or 

 beautiful enough in themselves for such a use, and 

 also because single accidents are superfluous where 

 everything is intended to look accidental. An accident 

 in a design should be striking and beautiful in itself, 

 and should be used to correct and contrast with the 

 general formality of that design. Therefore, shrubs 

 or trees brilliant in their flowers and informal in their 

 growth should be employed for that purpose. They 

 should contrast in every respect with the more formal 

 elements of the design that will serve as a foil to them. 

 Thus evergreen flowering shrubs, such as Berberis 

 Darwinii or B. stenophylla, should not be placed 

 against an evergreen background such as a yew hedge. 

 That should serve as a foil rather to some deciduous 

 tree with leafage of an utterly different colour. Noth- 

 ing is more beautiful in a garden than contrasts of 

 foliage, where they occur once and as if by accident. 

 Nothing is more restless and wearisome than such 

 contrasts where they are incessant and too varied. 

 Thus a mixed shrubbery, even if it is altogether com- 

 posed of beautiful flowering shrubs, is seldom beauti- 

 ful as a whole. The items seem to jostle each other 

 and to compete for your attention, like advertise- 

 ments on a hoarding or pictures at an exhibition, 

 and they compete most violently when they are in 

 flower together and in their fullest beauty. But a 



