HEDGES 



The rose of Sharon requires winter pruning to induce 

 an abundance of blossoms for the following season. 



The Japanese quince, or fire bush, Cydonia Japonica, 

 makes one of the most lovely of early spring flowering 

 hedges. It does not grow so high as the rose of Sharon, 

 seldom reaching five feet at the best. It is ideal, 

 however, where a hedge of medium height is desired, 

 and where the cheer of its exquisite blooms can be 

 appreciated in the days of the tulips, the white wistaria, 

 and the varying opalescent tints of unfolding spring. 

 Often these shrubs are planted as the roses of Sharon, 

 a white variety alternating with one of fiery red blos- 

 soms. Flowering hedges of solid color, however, are 

 thought by many to be the most pleasing. 



That plants are set as a hedge does not mean, as 

 many seem to think, that ever after they must be 

 left to grow unaided even as the flowers of the field. 

 On the contrary, each year they require fertilizing, 

 and] generally pruning, that they may bear as great 

 an abundance of flowers as possible, and this is true 

 in spite of their having been planted originally in very 

 rich soil. A line of shrubs with only a scattered blossom 

 here and there is unworthy the name of a flowering 

 hedge. 



Anthony Waterer, Spiraea Bumalda, has come into 

 use to make a low, bushy hedge of soft-tinted flowers. 

 It is very sturdy, growing well near the sea. The 

 objection to it is that its flat-topped flower heads turn 

 in fading to an unattractive shade of brown, which 

 casts over the whole hedge a dingy, half -dead appear- 

 ance. It is, of course, possible to cut off the bloom as 



[77] 



