MIXED SHRUBBERY BORDER. 



had suitable for every soil. On light, moist, peaty, or sandy soils, 

 where such things as the sweet-scented Daphne Cneorum would 

 spread forth their dwarf cushions, a better result would ensue than, 

 say, on a stiff clay ; but for every position suitable plants might be 

 found. Look, for example, at what we could do with the dwarf green 

 Iberises, Helianthemums, Aubrietias, Arabises, Alyssums, dwarf 

 shrubs, and little conifers like the creeping cedar (Juniperus squa- 

 mata), and the tamarix-leaved Juniper ! All these are green, and 

 would spread out into dense wide cushions, covering the margin, rising 

 but little above the grass, and helping to cut off the formal line 

 which usually divides margin and border. Behind them we might 

 use very dwarf shrubs, deciduous or evergreen, in endless variety ; 

 and of course the margin should be varied also. 



In one spot we might have a wide- spreading tuft of the prostrate 

 Savin pushing its graceful evergreen branchlets out over the grass ; 

 in another the dwarf little Cotoneasters might be allowed to form 

 the front rank, relieved in their turn by pegged-down Roses ; and so 

 on without end. Herbaceous plants, that die down in winter and 

 leave the ground bare afterwards, should not be assigned any 

 important position near the front. Evergreen alpine plants and 

 shrubs, as before remarked, are perfectly suitable. But the true 

 herbaceous type, and the larger bulbs, like Lilies, should be " stolen 

 in" between spreading shrubs rather than allowed to monopolize the 

 ground* By so placing- them, we should not only secure a far more 

 satisfactory general effect, but highly improve the aspect of the 

 herbaceous plants themselves.. The head of a white Lily, seen 

 peeping up between shrubs of fresh and glistening green, is in- 

 finitely more attractive than when forming one of a large batch of 

 its own or allied kinds, or associated with a mass of herbaceous 

 plants. Of course, to carry out such planting properly, a little 

 more time at first and a great deal more taste than are now employed 

 would be required ; but what a difference in the result. In the kind 

 of borders I advocate, nearly all the trouble would be over with the 

 first planting, and labour and skill could be successively devoted to 

 other parts of the place. All the covered borders would require 

 would be an occasional weeding or thinning, <fec., and perhaps, in 

 the case of the more select spots, a little top-dressing with fine soil. 

 Here and there, between and amongst the plants, such things as 

 Forget-me-nots and Violets, Snowdrops and Primroses, might be 

 scattered about, so as to lend the borders a floral interest, even at 



