170 



THE GARDEX MAGAZINE 



April, 1912 



Illustrating Rule 2. Surround your place 



with an irregular border of 

 trie lawn open 



and tall shrubs and leave 



Avoid all double-flowered varieties be- 

 cause they are more artificial. The single 

 snowballs and hydrangeas do not bloom 

 as long but they are more beautiful because 

 more characteristic in form. Double hy- 

 drangeas are top-heavy and gross by 

 comparison. 



Avoid all abnormally colored shrubs, e. g. 

 golden elder, purple-leaved barberry and 

 everything you see in the catalogues 



marked "variegata" or "fol. var." Com- 

 mon red-berried elder and common bar- 

 berry are showy enough. Green-leaved 

 plants never get monotonous because they 

 are not gaudy. 



Avoid all cut-leaved shrubs, e. g. elders, 

 and brambles. I do not want artificially 

 shredded foliage. When I need fine-leaved 

 plants I use species that are naturally fine- 

 leaved, e. g. sumachs, tamarisks, aralias. 





kind of garden you can leave for a summer without seriously impairing it: 

 bery garden. Mr and Mrs. Charles Hutchinson. Lake Geneva. Wis. 



beauty is a shrub- 



Avoid all magenta and near-magenta 

 flowers and berries, e. g. summer blooming 

 spireas, red bud, rose of Sharon, mezereum. 

 If you omit these you cut out nine tenths 

 of the color discords. 



Avoid short-lived material, e. g. orna- 

 mental cherries, peaches, Japan quince, 

 English hawthorn and garden roses. Gar- 

 den roses belong in the garden, not in the 

 shrubbery or front yard. 



WHAT I WOULD PLANT 



For tall trees I would choose from white 

 pine; hemlock; red and sugar maples; pin, 

 red and scarlet oaks. 



For small trees I would use flowering 

 dogwood and a great variety of magnolias. 



For tall shrubs I would use mostly 

 shrubby dogwoods and viburnums. Have 

 a great variety of Cornus and Viburnum. 

 They are the most valuable genera because 

 the} 7 give you color thrice a year — flowers, 

 fruit, and autumn foliage. 



For medium-sized shrubs I would use 

 our native sumachs, hydrangeas, barberry, 

 bayberry, sweetscented shrub, sweet pep- 

 per, prairie rose, elder; the flame, tree and 

 Vasey's azalea: button bush, red choke- 

 berry, white fringe, hazel, and the medium- 

 sized dogwoods and viburnums. 



For low shrubs I would use largely 

 yellow root. 



The indispensable foreigners to me are: 

 lilacs on their own roots, mock orange, 

 weigela, Van Houtte's spirea, forsj-thias, 

 Magnolia stcllata, dwarf horse-chestnut; 

 Rosa rugosa, multiflora, and Wicliuraiana; 

 the single white althea, the single hy- 

 drangea, Aralia pentaphylla, red-twigged 

 dogwood, honeysuckles, Regel's privet, and 

 Japanese barberry {Berber is Thunbergii) 

 — the best low shrub in existence. 



But I do not ask you to accept my per- 

 sonal taste. Just follow those five simple 

 rules as far as you can, leave the centre of 

 the lawn open and you will have all the 

 benefits above mentioned and more. For 

 your place will get finer every year. Vou 

 can have two gala seasons, spring and fall, 

 when you can invite a lot of friends. Vou 

 will never have a rush season, as you do 

 with annuals and perennials, for the main 

 work is pruning and you can do that a 

 little at a time. Vour place will be more 

 dignified and attractive the year round than 

 by the other three systems above men- 

 tioned. And this is the only kind of garden 

 which you can leave for a summer without 

 its being seriously impaired. 



If you must economize buy small-sized 

 shrubs and in three or four years they will 

 attain their full beauty. 



The list I have given is plenty large 

 enough for ogg out of every 1,000 beginners 

 in city, suburbs, and country. 



Why poison the landscape with a gigantic 

 outdoor chromo — crazy quilt of golden 

 elder, purple barberry, blue spruce, blood 

 maple, and all manner of cut-leaved, 

 variegated, and weeping trees and shrubs? 

 Why copy the worst taste of all countries! 

 Come on! Let us plan something artistic 

 and American! 



