66 How to Make a Flower Garden 



emphasis to the group; but it is always easy to use too many exclama- 

 tion points. 



The reprehensible practice of shearing shrubs should also be considered 

 here. The beauty and interest of a shrub surely lie in its natural habit and 

 form. When shrubs are sheared into formal shapes, the shrub no longer 

 exists for itself, but is only a means of expressing some queer conceit of 

 the shearer. Of course, shrubs should be pruned to make them healthy 

 and vigorous, to keep them within bounds, to increase the size of bloom, and 

 to check mere way^vardness ; but all this leaves the shrub a shrub, with the 

 hand of the pruncr unseen, and does not make it to counterfeit a bottle, or 

 a barrel, or a parachute. If the forsythia has superlative merit, it is for the 

 wealth of early spring bloom. Yet, I know a yard in which the forsythias 

 are annually sheared into shapeless shapes, and this is done when they are 

 m bloom. Last year two-thirds of the bloom was cut from these bushes 

 when it was just opening, and the reply of the Irishman who barbered them, 

 when I remonstrated, was, " Indade, they hev no shape." 



The satisfaction in shrubs, as in any other plants, lies in their vigour 

 and healthfulness. Make the ground rich before you plant them; or, if 

 they are already planted, dress them m the fall with fine manure, and in 

 spring apply a little chemical fertiliser. I like to prepare the shrub-border 

 by spading it or plowing it deep, working in an abundance of good humus- 

 making material, such as fine litter and old manure. This extra work pays 

 exceedingly well m the end. 



Plant thick — say two feet apart, unless the shrubs are very large to 

 begin with. You want quick efTects. The plantation can be thinned out 

 later, and those plants that are removed can be planted elsewhere. Shrubs 

 can be moved readily. Sometimes I remove certain shrubs frequently 

 for several years, letting them do service in various places for a time. For 

 a year or two, strong -growing annual herbs may be grown in the vacant or 

 bare places; but if this is done, extra care must be taken with fertilising and 

 watering, or the bushes will suffer. When the bushes are planted, they 

 should be headed back severely, and this practice may need to be repeated 

 for a year or two until the plants are thoroughly established ; but after they 

 are well under way, prune them only mildly. 



As to fall or spring planting, one cannot give dogmatic advice. I 

 usually prefer the spnng, not knowing what the winter will do for the plants ; 

 but get them in early, so that they may establish themselves partly before 



