"White pinks are perhaps the best flowers for edging. They are covered with 

 fragrant flowers in June and the silvery foliage is always attractive, even in 

 ■winter. Major Rogers, Haverhill, Sevenoaks Kent 



We can use English ivy as a ground cover in the North where it will not 

 thrive as a climber on account of its susceptibility to injury from the "winter 

 sun. It is also sometimes used for edging beds 



English Effects With Edging Plants— By wilheim Miller, 



New 

 York 



THE ELEGANCE AND PERFECTION OF ENGLISH LANDSCAPES AND GARDENS ARE LARGELY DUE TO THESE 

 CONNECTING OR TRANSITIONAL PLANTS, WHICH GIVE THE FINISHING TOUCH TO A CHARMING DESIGN 



[Editor's Note. — This is the eighth of a series of twelve articles that explain how we waste about a million dollars a year in trying to copy English garden ejects literally, and 

 the only way in which we can excel England. This series is devoted to the materials of gardening, such as trees, shrubs, vines, etc. A companion series in Country Life in America 

 deals with the different kinds of gardening, such as landscape, formal, rose, rock, water, and wall gardens. Both series began in January.] 



THE intoxicating beauty of English 

 landscapes and gardens is chiefly 

 caused by two things — luxuriance and 

 finish. Such luxuriance we may never hope 

 to attain until we begin to love our own 

 American trees, shrubs and vines and make 

 them dominant in our plantings as the 

 Europeans do with their own native vegeta- 

 tion. By "finish," I mean elegance, per- 

 fection, the last touch that makes an exquisite 

 picture. This finishing touch is often sup- 

 plied by edging plants or "ground covers" 

 — low growths that carry the eye from the 

 greenery of grass to that of the shrubs and 

 trees without a break. 



The perfect lawn is one that is free from 

 trees and bushes except at the borders, where 

 it is fringed by shrubbery. This idea is 

 illustrated by the picture on page 19. The 

 dignity of this scene is due chiefly to the tall 

 trees. The peacefulness and repose therein 

 are mainly owing to the unbroken lawn, 

 which seems greater and richer than it really 

 is, because its surface is not speckled with 

 showy plants. And the elegance of the 

 picture is largely due to the shrubbery, which 

 makes the transition between lawn and trees. 

 To realize the truth of this last statement one 

 has merely to think away the fringe of bushes. 



How different this is from the "camp 

 meeting" style of grove in which we Ameri- 

 cans often take complacent pride! Many 

 people, otherwise cultured, take it for granted 

 that there can be nothing finer than a grove 

 carpeted with grass. For picnics, yes; for 

 beauty and privacy, no. Call to mind the 

 loveliest woods with which you are 



acquainted. Do they not have flowers 

 within and a fringe of shrubbery without? 

 So, too, the private parks of England would 

 lose their elegance and finish if there were no 

 fringe of shrubbery. This fringe, however, 

 should not be continuous, as it often is in 

 nature. There should be a long, solid stretch 

 of bushes, to give seclusion to those in the 

 wood and to make the grove poetic, mystical, 

 alluring. And then there should be a break 



A trimmed edging plant (probably lavender) in 

 a garden designed by William Goldring. Yew at 

 the left, madonna lilies in bloom, broad-leaved 

 evergreens behind. Note resemblance to the " Colo- 

 nial " garden 



18 



with a glimpse of cool ferns amid cathedral 

 columns, or gorgeous masses of distant 

 rhododendron bloom. And at such openings 

 there should usually be a path or trail. 

 Such is the spirit of the English park — a 

 spirit that would ennoble our groves, pleasure 

 woods and tree-girt lawns. 



SHRUBS FOR EDGING LAWNS 



Any kind of shrubbery will make a tran- 

 sition between trees and grass, but most of the 

 bushes that we love for their flowers, especi- 

 ally the tall ones, are deficient in foliage at 

 the base. Therefore the most finished effect 

 is produced by edging tall bushes with low 

 ones, whose branches arch over and meet the 

 grass. Such are Forsythia suspensa, which 

 has yellow flowers in April; Van Houtte's 

 spirea, with white blossoms in May; Stephan- 

 andra flexuosa, with white flowers in June; 

 Regel's privet, with white flowers in July; 

 the shining sumach, with greenish clusters 

 in August; the yellowroot, which begins to 

 color finely in September; the Indian cur- 

 rant, whose purple berries last until Novem- 

 ber; and, best of all, the Japanese barberry, 

 which is attractive the year round, and 

 especially in winter, by reason of its scarlet 

 berries and the delicate tracery of its branches. 



It would be an excess of refinement to 

 furnish a perfect transition everywhere — 

 first tall bushes, then medium and finally 

 low ones. Where everything is delicate, 

 we miss the robust and virile. Tall trees 

 seem taller when no bushes are allowed in 

 front of them. On the other hand, if all 

 the lines in a landscape are strong and 



