22 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



used. There are plenty of them, so that a collection might 

 be indulged in, especially if the wall is in a conspicuous 

 place. 



There are walls of this kind in the Royal Gardens, 

 Kew. They were formerly boundary walls, and they 

 have been utilised for shrubs that required protection, 

 many not being climbers. They have become quite an 

 interesting feature of the place. Some are deciduous, 

 and for our present purpose they need not be con- 

 sidered. A list of the evergreens only is given here. 

 With few exceptions they are plants which are not 

 sufficiently hardy to grow permanently in the open in 

 this country except in such counties as Devon and Corn- 

 wall. Even with the protection afforded them at Kew 

 by the wall which supports them they sometimes get 

 frostbitten. Some have been in their present position for 

 at least fifty years. They are not nailed flat against the 

 wall, the main branches only being fixed, the others only 

 shortened when necessary. Thus treated, many of them 

 have formed a perfect screen of foliage a foot or more 

 through, completely hiding the wall and at the same time 

 presenting a pleasing, even decorative, front. 



The treatment may possibly be called mutilation, a mis- 

 use of plants which cannot do themselves justice when 

 nailed against a wall and kept more or less cropped. 

 It is pardonable, however, in such conditions as are de- 

 scribed above. If the plants were not grown in this way 

 they couldn't be grown at all. Needs must when the 

 climate drives ! It is not pretended that the appended list 

 includes all evergreen shrubs that may be successfully 

 used as wall screens, but the selection is considered suffi- 

 ciently embracing for most gardens. 



