28o Landscape Gardening 



And it is small plants which, if well attended to, constantly 

 produce the most healthy and perfect specimens. While, 

 therefore, a few larger things may be admitted into a garden 

 for variety, the staple of its furniture should be made up of 

 lower stuff. Three to four feet in height is a good size for 

 forest and ornamental trees and about two feet for the 

 majority of shrubs. Evergreens answer better when planted 

 only about nine inches or a foot high, if they be afterwards 

 kept free from weeds and are not allowed to be smothered 

 by other plants. 



In selecting plants for furnishing a garden, character and 

 ornament should invariably be the prime considerations. 

 Mere novelty ought to have little or no weight. Besides the 

 objects to be aimed at in planting which have been mentioned 

 in previous pages, however, it may be well to take into 

 account the appearance of deciduous trees and shrubs in 

 winter, with respect to their general form, or the color of 

 their shoots and buds, and also with reference to their beauty 

 when covered with snow and frost. Such as have slender or 

 drooping branches are particularly eligible on the latter 

 account and none are more so than the weeping birch. For 

 the color of their shoots and buds, birches, willows, alders, 

 the golden ash, dogwood, etc., are most noticeable. 



To relieve the excessive bareness of young plantations in 

 pleasure grounds, dahlias, hollyhocks, and many other her- 

 baceous species, if copiously introduced, have been found 

 singularly useful. The leaves of newly planted shrubs sel- 

 dom develop fully for the first year or two, and much may 

 therefore be done to make the clumps look fuller by means 

 of the plants just named without doing any injury to the 

 more permanent occupants of the ground. 



10. Staking Trees.— Newly planted trees and large shrubs 

 will sometimes require staking or supporting, as, if they play 



