BROAD-LEAVED EVERGREENS 27 



derfully beautiful. Shearing has the tendency to reduce the 

 flower heads. 



Fow low-growing masses and for Summer bloom the delicate- 

 leaved Abelia grandiflora is most reliable and hardy. It is con- 

 tinuously in bloom from June until October and when planted 

 in large groups is very charming. Masses of the deciduous Spirxa 

 Thunbergii with the Abelia make a very fine foundation planting 

 and give good results where more delicate shrubbery is needed 

 than is furnished by the larger-leaved varieties of these ever- 

 greens. Abelia and Spiraea Thunbergii also make charming 

 flowering hedges where beauty is wanted in the dividing line 

 rather than strength. 



Even more dainty of foliage than the Abelia is Nandina domes- 

 tical which is almost a Fern in its delicate greenness. In Winter 

 the leaves assume tones of coppery orange, the new leaves always 

 have a reddish tinge, and the contrasting tones of the leaf buds 

 with the delicate green of the finely cut foliage is a charming and 

 necessary addition to the darker greens of the usually somber- 

 leaved evergreens. In the Spring there are creamy panicles of 

 white flowers which are followed by heavy clusters of brilliantly 

 scarlet berries; these, persisting all Winter, make this a most effec- 

 tive garden shrub. The Chinese use it extensively in their landscape 

 work and call it ^'Heavenly Bamboo." The best Nandinas I 

 have seen were grown in the mountains of North Carolina and 

 there are plants growing in nearby gardens that were put out 

 over a hundred years ago. Still there are many who never heard 

 of it. 



Ligustrum amurense, Amoor Privet, while usually planted for 

 a hedge, also furnishes the lighter green tones and delicate leafage 

 desired in the shrubbery border of evergreen plantings. 



The most exquisite of the evergreen flowers, Kalmia latijolia^ 

 commonly known by the unpoetic name of Calico Bush, but 

 really Mountain Laurel, grows so freely in our mountains and 

 wildwoods that few gardens include it. Blossoming in the Spring 

 and freshly green all the year, if it can be successfully naturalized, 

 it is a wonderful addition to the garden. Although hard to 

 transplant from the woodlands, it is not difficult to establish if 



