1900.] ESSAYS. 91 



it is well to first sot the trees unci those pieces of the planting 

 which are to become the more important features of the design, 

 filling in later with the smaller shrubs and plants. 



AFTER TREATMENT OF THE PLANTING. 



( )ur naturalistic borders and groups will need very little care to 

 keep them in good order. As the plants grow they will crowd 

 one another and we shall he obliged to remove some things, 

 to give others more room. The pruning shears must also be 

 used here and there, to remove dead branches and to check and 

 direct the growth of living ones. I do not mean that trees and 

 shrubs can be sheared into grotesque and conventional forms. 

 That may do in formal gardens, but must not be allowed in our 

 naturalistic one, because it has no place in nature ; neither does 

 it make beauty. But we shall frequently find that a shrub is as 

 tall as we care to have it grow, and by properly clipping its 

 branches here and there we can change the direction of its 

 growth, without spoiling its natural form and character. A 

 little of this judicious clipping or pinching of the tips of tender 

 shoots will make any bush, deciduous or evergreen, thicken up 

 and often improve its appearance. We must not expect that 

 each tree and plant can be allowed to grow where we first place 

 it. As the various portions of our landscape develop, we shall 

 discover some mistakes in our planting. Some shrubs will be 

 out of place and we take them up and set them out in new 

 places, for the sake of bringing out some contrast in form or 

 color, of foliage or flower. 



This rearrangement, for the sake of making the picture con- 

 form to our changing ideas, is one of the pleasures of garden- 

 ing, and we feel that we should not care for a garden, if we 

 could not change the things in it. 



CHARACTERISTICS THAT MAKE PLANTS VALUABLE FOR 

 LANDSCAPE EFFECTS. 



Form and color are the two chief attributes that determine 

 the suitability of a plant for landscape work. To these we 

 must add the qualities of hardiness and vigor, for unless plants 

 possess them, they are not worthy of a place in our grounds. 



