216 MANUAL OF GARDENING 



may give a very desirable temporary finish to places that are 

 pretentious enough to make them seem in keeping. 



Very rough, hard, sterile, and stony banks may sometimes 

 be covered with coltsfoot {Tussilago Farfara), sacaline, Rubus 

 cratcegifolius, comfrey, and various wild growths that persist in 

 similar places in the neighborhood. 



However much the planter may plan for immediate effects, 

 the beauty of trees and shrubs comes with maturity and age, 

 and this beauty is often delayed, or even obliterated, by shear- 

 ing and excessive heading-back. At first, bushes are stiff and 

 erect, but when they attain their full character, they usually 

 droop or roll over to meet the sward. Some bushes make 

 mounds of green much sooner than others that may even be 

 closely related. Thus the common yellow-bell {Forsythia vir- 

 dissima) remains stiff and hard for some years, whereas F. 

 suspensa makes a rolling heap of green in two or three years. 

 Quick informal effects can also be secured by the use of HalFs 

 Japanese honeysuckle {Lonicera Halliana of nurserymen), an 

 evergreen in the South, and holding its leaves until midwinter 

 or later in the North. It may be used for covering a rock, a 

 pile of rubbish, a stump (Fig. 236), to fill a corner against a 

 foundation, or it may be trained on a, porch or arbor. There 

 is a form with yellow-veined leaves. Rosa Wichuraiana and 

 some of the dewberries are useful for covering rough places. 



Many vines that are commonly used for porches and ar- 

 bors may be employed also for the borders of shrub-planta- 

 tions and for covering rough banks and rocks, quickly giving a 

 finish to the cruder parts of the place. Such vines, among 

 others, are various kinds of clematis, Virginia creeper, actinidia, 

 akebia, trumpet creeper, periploca, bitter-sweet (Solanum 

 Dulcamara), wax-work {Celastrus saandens). 



Of course, very good immediate effects may be secured by 

 very close planting (page 222), but the homesteader must not 

 neglect to thin out these plantations when the time comes. 



