200 SHRUBS 



The nurserymen ought to stop writing "flowering shrubs" in their 

 catalogues instead of "deciduous shrubs." And they ought to 

 quit booming the few shrubs that flower in July and August, 

 because we do not need excitement in hot weather; we need repose, 

 and the most reposeful colour then is green. Summer is the 

 natural resting time for shrubbery, between spring flowers and 

 autumn fruits, and our natural time to enjoy the texture of foliage. 

 It is all wrong to try to make the shrubbery brilliant in midsummer 

 with a lot of loud-mouthed purplish-magenta spireas like Anthony 

 Waterer, or "ever-blooming bores" like hydrangeas. It is bad 

 enough to have our autumn landscape made monotonous by too 

 many top-heavy hydrangeas in every yard, without filling the 

 shrubbery in summer with these unnatural double flowers. A 

 "night shift" may be proper at the glue factory, but we don't 

 want our shrubberies to look as if they were working overtime. 

 In other words, what we ought to have in every home shrubbery is 

 flowers in spring; foliage in summer; colours in autumn; and berries 

 and branches in winter. 



All this we can have by planning our home grounds with 

 reference to twelve months instead of two or three. Forget all 

 about the old-time favourites for a minute. You need not sacrifice 

 any of them, but try this easy plan and your eyes will be opened 

 to a new world of beauty. It is not even necessary to know one 

 kind of shrub from another. All I ask is that you make a list of 

 the twelve months and have two or three attractions for each month. 

 Now list your favourites and you will see that they help you only 

 in two or three months. The best way to fill the big gaps is to 

 employ a landscape gardener. If you can't afford that, go to a 

 nursery and fill in your blanks from the shrubs themselves, instead 

 of checking off names in an alphabetical list. If you can't do that, 



