472 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



the names of these wild bushes, although a knowledge of their 

 botanical features will add greatly to the pleasure of growing them. 

 Neither will they look common when transferred to the lawn. 

 There are very few people who know even the commonest wild 

 bushes intimately, and the bushes change so much in looks when 

 removed to rich grounds that few people recognize them. (Cornell 

 E. S. B. 205.) 



To make a group, dig up the entire area. Never set the bushes 

 in holes dug in the sod. Spade up the ground, set the bushes thick, 

 hoe them, and then let them go. If you do not like the bare earth 

 between them, sow in the seeds of hardy annual flowers, like phlox, 

 petunia, alyssum and pinks. The person who plants his shrubs in 

 holes in the sward does not seriously mean to make any foliage 

 mass, and it is likely that he does not know what relation the bor- 

 der-mass has to artistic planting. Planting the bushes thick is for 

 quick effect. It is an easy matter to thin the plantation if it be- 

 comes too thick. Generally plant all common bushes as close as 

 two feet apart each way, especially if most of them come from the 

 fields instead of the nursery. 



If one has no area which he can make into a lawn and upon 

 which he can plant verdurous masses, what then may he do? Even 

 then there may be opportunity for a little neat and artistic plant- 

 ing. Even if one lives in a rented house, he may bring in a bush 

 or an herb from the woods and paint a picture with it. Plant it in 

 the corner by the steps, in front of the porch, at the corner of the 

 house, almost anywhere except in the center of the lawn. Make the 

 ground rich, secure a strong root and plant it with care ; then wait. 

 The little clump will not only have a beauty and interest of its 

 own, but will add immensely to the furniture of the yard. About 

 its base one may plant stray bulbs of glowing tulips or dainty snow- 

 drops and lilies-of-the-valley ; and these may be followed with 

 pansies and phlox and other simple folk. Very soon one finds 

 himself deeply interested in these random and detached pictures, 

 and almost before he is aware he finds that he has rounded off the 

 corners of the house, made snug little arbors of wild grapes and cle- 

 matis, covered the rear fence and the outhouse with actinidia and 

 bitter-sweet, and has thrown in dashes of color with hollyhocks, 

 cannas and lilies, and has tied the foundations of the buildings to 

 the greensward by low strands of vines or deft bits of planting. He 

 soon comes to feel that flowers are most expressive of the best emotions 

 when they are daintily dropped in here and there against a back- 

 ground of foliage. Presently he rebels at the bold, harsh and impu- 

 dent designs of some of the gardeners, and grows into a pure and 

 subdued love of plant forms and verdure. He may still like the 

 weeping and cut-leaved and party-colored trees of the horticulturist, 

 but he sees that their best effects are to be had when they are planted 

 sparingly, as flowers are, as borders or promontories of the structural 

 masses. 



It all amounts to this, that the best planting, like the best 

 painting and the best music, is possible only with the best and 



