GETTING INTO THE GROUND 41 



There is a bothersome deficiency about these 

 plant catalogues, I find. They say so much and 

 so little; so much about how fine a thing this 

 Spiraea Van Houttei is, and so little about how 

 much space it will probably cover in the first five 

 years and in another similar period. I have had 

 to dig out some abelias innocently planted only 

 three feet from a buddleia which in one year 

 completely overshadowed them. Why didn't 

 the catalogue tell me that the funkias would 

 cover quickly a circle of three feet diameter, while 

 the dictamnus set near it was easily able to stand 

 on a square foot of ground? No one guarded me 

 against the error of crowding peonies too closely 

 together, or told me that the lovely old bleeding- 

 heart would take much room until August, and 

 then simply "get off the earth." 



No catalogue I have seen discusses fully these 

 important points; and when one is actually issued 

 that shows forth such knowledge, I predict great 

 demand for it, and I hope for the stock it offers. 



In deciding on the shrubs for the vistas, I have 

 tried to look for autumn and winter color, of fading 

 leaf and enduring twig, as well as for seasoned 

 bloom. Few shrubs bloom more than a month, and 

 the most hardly half so long; but the leaves are 

 often a full month in changing color before they 



