THE RIGHT USE OF FLOWERING SHRUBS 



IT is often said that flowering shrubs are too little 

 used in our gardens; and, indeed, considering 

 their number and beauty, we may wonder that more 

 is not made of them. Yet there is some reason for 

 their neglect, for of all the ornaments of the garden 

 they are the most difficult to place rightly. We are 

 uncertain whether to treat them as shrubs or as flowers. 

 Many of them cannot be used, like other shrubs, as 

 a foil or background to flowers, since they have too 

 strong an interest of their own when they are ia flower; 

 and when they go out of flower they often lack the 

 neatness and flourishing air of other shrubs. They 

 have made their great display, beautiful while it lasts 

 but often short-lived, and when it is over they have 

 a spent look like herbaceous plants after their flower- 

 ing time. On the other hand, it is difficult to treat 

 most of them as flowering plants and to place them 

 among other flowering plants in the border, because 

 of their size and because their roots rob the ground 

 of nourishment and moisture which the other plants 

 need. In a large garden, of course, they may be placed 

 by themselves in great shrubberies; but these are 

 seldom satisfactory, especially when they consist of 

 many kinds of shrubs. It is far more difficult to make 



a pleasant arrangement of different flowering shrubs 



237 



