AMERICAN SHRUBS 
Tue hardy shrubs commonly known in gardens as 
American plants comprise the azaleas, kalmias, rhodo- 
dendrons and some other genera of less importance, and 
form a group that is unsurpassed in freedom of flowering 
and in the richness and effectiveness of their colours. 
They are, it must be stated, somewhat peculiar in their 
requirements and cannot therefore be grown, as in the 
case. of so many other hardy shrubs, almost anywhere 
without having the beds and borders specially prepared 
for them. But as they are so extremely beautiful and 
produce such marvellous colour effects when growing 
under conditions favourable to the full development of 
foliage and flowers, they fully justify the expenditure 
on labour and material necessary to provide them with 
a suitable soil. 
They all grow vigorously in a good bed of peat as 
exemplified by the splendid growth they make in 
gardens and nurseries on the peat formations, and 
where peat is so readily accessible that beds and 
borders can be made wholly with it. Therefore where 
peat can be obtained at a comparatively small cost it 
should be used either alone or in association with leaf- 
mould or other decayed vegetable matter. In making 
beds or preparing stations for single specimens remove 
the soil to a depth of eighteen inches or two feet and 
replace with peat broken up into large lumps, or with 
peat and vegetable matter in the proportion of four parts 
of the former to one of the latter. If the soil of the 
garden is a stiff clay lay three inch drain pipes across 
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