ARRANGEMENT OF SHRUBBERIES 41 



the general scheme is on smaller lines. In grouping it is necessary to 

 observe a strict sense of proportion. 



One great advantage in the massing of shrubs must be adverted to; 

 it simplifies the management and reduces the labour of keeping the 

 shrubbery in order. Presuming that' the plants were first set closely 

 enough together to pretty nearly cover the ground and produce an 

 immediate effect, when the time comes as it soon will that more 

 space is needed for each plant, it can easily be afforded by a judicious 

 thinning out. The trouble and expense of an entire planting are avoided. 

 If, however, either through neglect or deliberate choice, the shrubs are 

 allowed to remain as originally planted the crowding does little harm. 

 Each group becomes, as it were, one plant, and the general effect is not 

 spoilt, as it assuredly is where the shrubbery degenerates into a featureless 

 jumble. 



In the initial planning of a shrubbery border an attempt should be 

 made to give it a broken or diversified surface. The ideal of many 

 planters appears to be the achievement of a perfectly symmetrical bank 

 of foliage sloping from back to front. But the general effect is infinitely 

 more pleasing where the groups of taller shrubs are pushed out into a 

 sort of promontory reaching almost or quite to the front, and bays of 

 smaller ones recede towards the back. All that one has to avoid is 

 the overgrowing or hiding of the smaller by the larger. 



A True Mixed Shrubbery. There is another type of shrubbery 

 which has also its own distinct attractiveness. This is where each 

 individual has to stand on its own merits, and where no attempt is made 

 to produce broad or imposing effects by associating together a number of 

 similar plants. This plan has, perforce, to be adopted where the space 

 available is restricted, and where the taste of the planter leads him to 

 prefer variety rather than beauty merely. Such an arrangement appeals 

 with especial strength to the connoisseur, and is the one which makes the 

 small garden most interesting. Small choice shrubs, particularly evergreen 

 ones, make extremely attractive narrow borders, assembled together as 

 individuals in this way, only the choice should be confined to slow-growing 

 sorts, not likely to rob or overcrowd their neighbours. Many of the 

 Ericacea, such as the dwarf rhododendrons, kalmias, etc., are very 

 suitable. 



But when one gets away from these neat dwarf shrubs to free-growing, 

 more robust ones, it is unquestionable that a shrubbery built up on the 

 same lines is less easily managed than the one where the grouping system 

 is adopted. It gets out of hand more quickly and demands more 

 persistent attention. Each plant, in order that it may show its true 

 character and beauty, must attain to a certain minimum size and needs a 

 certain space for its development to that size. Once that is filled it 



