782 



OPEN FLOWER-GARDEN. 



a view to economise the soil, and with the 

 best effects. 



Planting shrubberies. — All transplanting, to be 

 successful, must be carefully performed. Th6 

 operation of taking up and removing has been 

 already referred to {vide p. 356 to 388). If imme- 

 diate effect be aimed at, then large specimens 

 must be employed ; and these, if not existing in 

 the grounds, will be both expensive and difficult 

 to procure. It is always a hazardous affair to 

 transplant large trees or shrubs from a distance, 

 and it is almost as great a risk to transplant 

 them from existing shrubberies even in the 

 same garden ; while it is still more difBcult to 

 select them of propen form, and in fit condition 

 for the purpose. The latter disqualification 

 arises from the neglected state in which our 

 shrubberies ai-e so often found. The plants, 

 being crowded together, become one-sided, if not 

 naked at bottom, and rarely can be taken up 

 with sufficient roots to insure their growing, 

 and more seldom are they to be found of suffi- 

 cient symmetry to fit them for the gardenesque 

 style of planting. Under these circumstances, 

 it were better to choose smaller plants ; and 

 these, if planted in properly prepared soil, will 

 in a ifew years completely outgrow those that 

 may have been removed of larger sizes. Shrubs 

 which from neglect may have been allowed to 

 become straggling and bare of branches near 

 the ground, may be cut down to within a few 

 inches of their roots, and transplanted; and if 

 the operation is performed in spring, they will 

 break strong, and become fine bushy plants the 

 season following. Most shnibs may be thus 

 treated, if we except coniferous ones, which sel- 

 dom break freely after such severe cutting, and 

 few of them will afterwards send up proper 

 leaders. In planting, it is not the present size 

 of the individuals that is to guide us in their 

 aiTangement, but the character they will assume 

 in after growth ; and hence the impoi'tance of 

 the planter's having a thorough knowledge of 

 their habits and characters. In the first stage 

 of proceeding, each tree and shrub should in- 

 variably be placed where it is permanently to 

 remain. When this is done, a set of duplicates 

 may be interplanted for immediate effect, or 

 rather for thickening ; but this must be done on 

 the understanding that they are to be removed 

 before the branches of any two of the permanent 

 ones touch each other. In planting in the pic- 

 turesque style, the subjects are placed much 

 closer together, and hence deformities as to 

 form may be much better concealed, the great 

 object being a leafy exterior. In planting, whe- 

 ther in the gardenesque or picturesque styles, 

 care should be taken that the effect intended 

 to be produced be not defeated by the inter- 

 mixture of too many species, and those of dis- 

 cordant habits. Still, on the other hand, it is ex- 

 ceedingly desirable that our shrubberies should 

 present a more exotic and a more varied cha- 

 racter than many of them have heretofore done. 

 This defect does not assuredly arise from a 

 want of sufficient material, for with that our 

 nurseries have been stocked for the last half- 

 century or more ; nor in all cases has it been 

 from a want of proper discrimination on the 



part of the planter, but in many oases from a 

 parsimonious disposition on the part of some 

 to purchase good plants ; and in the majority 

 from bad management on the pai't of gardeners, 

 and an unwillingness on the part of their em- 

 ployers to thin out and maintain' their shrab- 

 beries in a healthy condition ; strong and com- 

 monplace plants being allowed to overgrow and 

 ultimately to kill their more valuable although 

 less luxuriant neighbours. Portugal and com- 

 mon laurels, hollies, rhododendrons, with an odd 

 mixture of deciduous shrubs having little affinity 

 with these, are the material by which our ordi- 

 nary shrubberies are furnished, and these are 

 striving with keen rivalry to exterminate each 

 other. 



Whatever style of planting may be adopted, it 

 is necessary, for securing ultimate success, that a 

 correct plan of the ground be first made, and 

 upon it should be marked the number and posi- 

 tion of such groups or single specimens as are 

 to form the main features of the shrubbery when 

 it has attained its fullest degree of perfection. 

 These positions should be accurately transferred 

 to the ground, and marked by a stake with the 

 name or corresponding number to that on the 

 plan written upon each. When planting, these 

 points should be first filled up, and the spaces 

 between planted with such plants as are from 

 time to time to be removed. Unless this or 

 some similar guide be adopted, the whole will 

 go on at random, and the object aimed at by the 

 planter be completely defeated. Still farther to 

 secure this end, the permanent plants should be 

 marked in such a manner as will prevent their 

 being accidentally removed during the future 

 progresses of thinning. 



It is the taste of some to plant their shrub- 

 beries entirely of evergreens, and no doubt such 

 have at least a more permanent appearance of 

 unison than where deciduous trees and shrubs 

 are intermixed. In Such cases, however, unless 

 attention is paid to the introduction of plants 

 of varied colours or habit, the whole will assume 

 a sameness of outline perfectly devoid of char- 

 acter or interest. To break this monotonous 

 appearance, the ground next the margin should 

 be covered with the dwarfest-growing species — 

 such as hardy heaths, double-floweiing whin, 

 Mhododendron hirsutum and ferrugineum, vac- 

 ciniums, empetrums, andromedas, heliau- 

 themums, mahonias, vincas, cotoneasters, &c., 

 backed by box, both variegated and green, 

 daphnes, laurustinus, aucubas ; and followed by 

 junipers, common laurel, arbutus, rhododen- 

 drons, yews; and, last of all, Portugal laurel; 

 arborvitae, hollies, both, variegated and green, 

 with single specimens interspersed of deo- 

 dara, arducaria, taxodium, oryptomeria, with 

 some of the most interesting other conifer- 

 ous trees and evergreen oaks, standing, as it 

 were, in projection. In ai'rangiug the others, 

 the effect will be most striking if they are 

 planted in groups of various sizes and of irregu- 

 lar forms. The mixed or promiscuous manner 

 of planting seldom pleases the eye of taste, and 

 all attempts at systematic arrangement carry 

 with them that methodical stiffness fitted only 

 for strictly botanical gardens. The variegated 



