6 LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



corners. Do you realize that even the small bushes of ordinary 

 nursery size reach their full height in four or five years? And the 

 best way of all to attain mellowness is to use rampant vines, for 

 trees can only hide ugliness, but climbers can transform it into 

 beauty. 



So, too, with that other bugaboo climate. Ask yourself, 

 "What is the most precious thing that climate can give to the 

 landscape? Is it this or that plant, or is it luxuriance?" Perhaps 

 you would rather reply, " Trees a thousand years old," or " The 

 exquisite finish of the English landscape a^ A gardens." But 

 if you will analyze both ideas you will find ie root-idea is 



luxuriance. For if we plant the right kind ^ _,ees they will last 

 a thousand years. Redwood has lasted that long in California 

 and I dare say white oak in the North and live oak in the 

 South. 



Therefore, I lay down this bold challenge: We can get 

 go 'per cent, of the English luxuriance in our own lifetime by plant- 

 ing our longest-lived native trees and shrubs. And if you don't 

 believe it visit the estate of Professor Charles Sprague Sargent at 

 Brookline, Mass. 



Again, the exquisite finish of the English landscape is largely 

 due to the extraordinary luxuriance of the grasses and wild flowers 

 that cover every foot of the banks that line the roadsides. But 

 we can get this same finish in our gardens, if not along the roadsides, 

 largely by using edging plants to make a connection between the 

 greenery of the grass and that of the trees. (See plate I and 

 Chapter XXII.) For this purpose we need low-growing shrubs 

 such as Deutzia gracilis, the Indian currant, Spiraea Fan Houttei 

 and Japanese barberry. Also we should carpet every foot of the 

 ground with shallow-rooting plants that will give us another crop 



