GARDENS NEAR THE SEA 



it begins to lose its color; but this process in turn 

 gives the hedge a look of being shorn and unfinished. 



Spircea Van Houttei grows into one of the most 

 beautiful flowering hedges imaginable. It must be 

 given considerable space to spread its pendulous 

 branches, which, in late May and early June, are 

 strewn to their tips with cloudlike, dainty flowers. I 

 have seen one such hedge in perfection. It stands, 

 perhaps, six miles away from the ocean, yet the same 

 effect might be produced nearer wave and spray, as 

 the shrub is not one of shrinking nature. This par- 

 ticular hedge is planted on both sides of a long walk 

 and is visited when in blossom by people from far and 

 near who call it universally, "the Bride's Way." 



Hydrangeas and snowballs are also used for flower- 

 ing hedges. I think, however, with many others, 

 that in this connection they do not strike the exact 

 note of appropriateness. In almost every case, it seems 

 preferable to keep them for lawn specimens for plant- 

 ing among clumps of shrubbery. 



Deutzia gracilis, on the contrary, is exceedingly 

 charming when grown as a low hedge. It is often 

 selected to lead the way up to heavy planting or to 

 outline paths in the garden. It sends out its fleecy 

 blossoms in May, and then rests upon its laurels for 

 the remainder of the season. One woman of much 

 taste in garden building uprooted her hedge of D. 

 gracilis flanking the walk which led in a winding way 

 to her garden. She felt that it struck such a high key 

 during its season of flowers that without them the rest 

 of the year seemed tame and uneventful, and that 



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