Beautifying the Farmstead. 55 



shrubs, but many have extremely bright colors and these can be 

 placed between the other plants where they will not take much room 

 and will help to make a continuous picture. Most perennial plants 

 will last three years or more without need of lifting and resetting. 

 The spring-flowering bulbs, such as tulips, hyacinths, and narcissi, 

 can also be scattered among the shrubs and be permitted to remain 

 there and bloom for several years. Of these the narcissi are much 

 the best adapted to this treatment. 



Annual flowering plants can also be scattered at various points 

 along the shrubbery beds and so provide color at a time when it is 

 almost entirely lacking among the other plants. The tender bedding 

 plants, such as cannas and geraniums, may also be appropriately 

 used in the way shown in figure 61, where plants of scarlet sage have 

 been used in front of some hemlocks, making a striking combination 

 that could easily have been overdone. Such material should be used 

 in moderation and in small clumps, never as continuous borders 

 either to shrubbery beds or to beds along the house except in formal 

 gardening. Beds of such material should not be planted in the 

 open lawn. If that sort of planting is desired a formal garden should 

 be provided where the planting can be done appropriately. 



Tenants leasing from year to year or others expecting to be on a 

 farm for only a few months can bring about much improvement by 

 planting annuals and tender bedding plants in the manner described 

 for shrubs. 



PLANT MATERIAL. 



In planting the farmstead the particular plants used, if hardy 

 and adapted to the region and locality, are of less importance than 

 the general effect of the mass. The expression of the mass, how- 

 ever, is dependent on the combined effect of the characters of the 

 plants composing it. There are great differences of expression 

 between the exclamatory or " look-at-me " impression created by the 

 Lombardy poplar and other tall slim plants and the sympathetic 

 and almost mournful impression given by drooping plants, like the 

 weeping willow: between the sturdy self-reliant attitude, typified 

 especially by the white oaks and live oaks, and the dependent or 

 clinging attitude expressed by vines; between the formal expression 

 of symmetrical rigid-growing plants, like the firs and spruces, and the 

 informal expression of the tamarisk ; and between the heavy effect of 

 plants with large dark leaves and the airy effect of plants with small 

 light-green leaves. 



Plants with great differences of expression should not be used too 

 close together, but should be united by those with intermediate char- 

 acters. The lines of the different parts of the mass should flow into 

 one another without too great contrasts. Transitions in color and 



