PLANTING DESIGN OF PARKS 



cities south of New York can make use of the glossy-leaved evergreen 

 plant, Euonymus Japonica, which composes most of the hedges 

 lining the shady drives of the parks of Florence. The shade-enduring 

 olive, Osmanthus aqvifolium^ a recent arrival in this country, has been 

 introduced by the author into the Washington parks with success. The 

 real difficulty of planting in shade is that of contending with the tree 

 roots that have long had established right Of way. Only by isolating 

 the shrub plantation by means of cinder trench or other barrier to 

 protect their food supply from the foraging roots of the trees, and by 

 ! constant and generous feeding from the surface, can new plants become 

 L established and the foliage undergrowth obtained. 

 r~ Too often the planting problem is that of patching up a poor 

 i design, of attempting to supply foliage for background or other pur- 

 [ pose of composition, which plant elements should have been put in 

 twenty-five years previous. When the landscape designer starts with 

 a clear field he will not find it over-difficult to establish a composition 

 I of trees and shrubs growing in close juxtaposition. By planting trees 

 ' and shrubs together at the outset — the shrubs comparatively large in 

 ' size to give them temporary right of way over the tree material — ^the 

 different parts of the planting will become tolerant of each other, 

 effecting the result the landscape artist desired. Such semi-shade com- 

 positions are of too vital moment in good park design to be abandoned 

 because difficult to obtain. 



SUGGESTIONS AND ADVICE 



An interesting notation made in Italy is that the tree planting of 

 large natm-alistic parks is found more or less grouped in single variety, 

 often composed of specimens widely variant in size. This apparently 

 has been the result of letting existing trees indicate the suitability of 

 ground for particular tree growth, the park gardener augmenting 

 their number in anticipation of loss from time to time. The effect is 



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