332 TREES AND SHRUBS 



When this is the case, it is a good plan to plant 

 hardy flowering shrubs about 4 feet apart, and so 

 to train and trim them that they grow into a compact 

 hedge, and yet have enough lateral play to allow 

 them to flower. Two years ago we privately advised 

 some friends who were planting new gardens where 

 such dividing hedges were wanted, and the hedges 

 are already coming into use and beauty. 



Such a hedge is not only ornamental, but it yields 

 endless material for cutting. It should be allowed 

 to grow quite 4 feet thick, and is best formed with 

 a backbone of stiff woody shrubs, such as Guelder 

 Roses, Ribes, and Lilac, while between the stiffer 

 shrubs might be some that are weaker, such as Kerria, 

 Rhodotypus, and Leycesteria. Plants of rank rambling 

 growth, such as free Roses and double-flowered 

 Brambles, Aristolochia, Wistaria, Virginia Creeper, and 

 the rambling Honeysuckles, are not in place in such 

 a hedge ; they are more suitable for rough hedge 

 banks, walls, or for arbour and pergola ; the flower 

 hedge wants true shrubs. The bush Honeysuckles, 

 such as Lonicera fragrantissima and L. tatarica, are 

 just right, or any woody, twiggy bushes of moderate 

 growth, or such as are amenable to pruning and 

 thinning, such as Deutzia and Snowberry, shrubs that 

 so often get overgrown in a shrubbery. In the 

 hedge these would do well, as they could easily be 

 watched and thinned ; also many true shrubs that 

 flower all the better for reasonable pruning. 



Any one would be surprised to see what a quantity 

 of useful flowers such a hedge would yield, while, if 



