Ornamental Trees and Shrubs 6t 



Section III. 



CHAPTER XII. 

 ORNAMENTAL TREES AND SHRUBS. 



WHEN planting shrubberies and general ornamental trees, we put 

 aside all idea of utility, and consider pictorial effect only. We 

 want the home, the house, the grounds, to be one complete pic- 

 ture ; and if the place is large enough, we want to create a series 

 of pictures, making every nook and corner, every broad and every 

 confined view, a place of beauty. To say that the planting of 

 trees will do this is only partially correct. For planting without 

 a well-planned scheme, without the completed picture in one's 

 mind, and without tasteful selection of variety and place, may 

 end in a hopeless failure. Methods of ground preparation, dis- 

 tances, formation almost all points one could mention are to be 

 viewed from a standpoint quite different from the putting down 

 of a mere plantation of trees. Let us consider some of the 

 general principles to be followed : 



(a) Before the ground is touched or a tree purchased the owner 

 should have a clear picture of what he wants. The general 

 failure of a good many homesteads is not caused by a lack of 

 trees and shrubs, but by a lack of ideal. Things have been 

 planted without any fixed plan in view, and the result is a 

 hopeless, inartistic tangle of foliage. Get the plan of the 

 place fixed in the imagination, just as an architect completes 

 his plans before building a house. 



This plan of the place is not to be what it will look like 

 when planted, but what you think it will l>e, in ten, twenty, 

 or thirty years' time. It requires imagination to think for- 

 ward to the time when your seedlings will have become grown 

 up, some of them large and handsome spreading trees, or 

 masses of grand varied foliage, or well-grown shrubs in full 

 flower and leaf. Yet success in planting depends on a clear 

 picture just like that. It may be that you desire to copy 

 some place you have seen, or create a replica of some natural 

 beauty spot. Or there may be some new and attractive ideas 

 to be worked out. Whatever it is, let it be a clear and com- 

 plete picture. 



