CHAPTER XVI 



CONIFERS (INCLUDING PINES) IN 

 ORNAMENTAL PLANTING 



THOSE who take a serious interest in their gardens 

 and other planted grounds are so rapidly acquiring 

 a better comprehension of the art in its wider aspects, 

 and are so willingly receptive of further suggestion, 

 that we emphasise a lesson that we have often tried 

 to teach, namely, the importance of planting in large 

 groups of one thing at a time, and of a right choice. 

 There is no more common mistake made than that 

 of planting just the wrong things in the wrong places. 

 Thus we see plantations of Spruce on dry, sandy 

 hill-tops, from whence the poor trees must look with 

 longing eyes to their true home in the moist, alluvial 

 soil of the valley-bottom below. In mixed plantations 

 we see Conifers from many climes and all altitudes, 

 all expected to do equally well in perhaps one 

 small space of garden ground. If in a projected 

 plantation there is space for only fifty trees, how 

 much better it would be first to ascertain which out 

 of a few kinds would be best suited to the soil and 

 general conditions of the place, and then out of this 

 selection to choose the one that best fits the planter's 

 own liking and will be most in harmony with the 

 further planting scheme that he has in view. In this 



