CHAPTER X 



SHRUBS 



TREES grow above the height of one's eyes; flowering 

 plants below it; but shrubs that are on the eye level, 

 like well-hung pictures, occupy the most important space 

 in the garden gallery. Do they justify so conspicuous a position ? 

 Evidently, for their popularity steadily increases, a thousand being 

 sold in the United States this year for every one that was 

 bought a generation ago; but then, it should be considered 

 that our interest in all kinds of planting has increased by 

 leaps and bounds. Many old estates that have a fine growth 

 of trees lack shrubbery that indicates any appreciation of its 

 pictorial value in landscape gardening. Lilacs, mock orange, 

 strawberry shrub and the spicy flowering currant were usually 

 grown near the house for their fragrance and not for their value 

 in the landscape composition. 



The present generation is using a great variety of shrubs and 

 for many purposes. People who live on small suburban places, 

 where there is room for only a few trees, find that tall shrubs planted 

 as a boundary belt make an effectual screen from the eyes of the 

 passers-by; and even on large estates an undergrowth of shrubbery 

 for the boundary trees is usually planted where low-branched ever- 

 greens are not used. Whoever has walked through woods from 

 which all the natural undergrowth has been cleared away by an 

 over-tidy owner realises that they have lost half their charm. 

 Shrubs are the natural complement of trees, filling in the gap 

 between their branches and the ground. Almost every important 



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