TASTE AND TACT IN ARRANGING ORNAMENTAL 

 GROUNDS— XXVI. 



TREATMENT FOR A NURSERYMAN S PLACE. 



ILORISTS and nurserymen 

 derive their income from 

 selling trees and plants 

 to the public, and it is 

 fitting that they should 

 make their own grounds 

 object lessons in orna- 

 mental planting, using 

 material more or less 

 rare, yet worthy of 

 wide dissemination. Ap- 

 preciating this fact, the 

 writer found much pleasure in planning improvements 

 for the grounds of a nurseryman in Illinois. The place, 

 with the improvements suggested, is shown in the picture 

 on the opposite page. As is it a new one, as yet little 

 planted, there were few restrictions to the plan, and 

 these are given in the following letter : 



" My grounds contain about twenty acres, but three-fifths of the 

 area will be used as a garden and for fruit plantations. The 

 lawn contains about six acres, and is about twice as wide as long. 

 It is in planning the arrangement of this that I wish, your help. 



" With the exception of the residence and tool-shop, nothing is 

 permanently located. No walks are established and there are no 

 trees or shrubs that need remain. I do not care for any distant 

 views except those down ctreet directly south and east of the 

 house, so v<3u can form tree or shrub masses wherever else you 



ike. 



ike a fence or 

 nv boundary lin- 



the back of the 

 to plant small- 



part 6f the grounds there is a fine 



should 

 house southwest to m 

 fruits north of it. 



"In the south weste 

 for a lakelet." 



In the plan on page 713, A is the residence, B the 

 stable, C a vine-arbor, D a rustic bridge crossed by the 

 west drive, E the highway, FFF fruit and nursery 

 grounds. The drive-ways, approaching from the street 

 at two points, and extending by graceful curves through- 

 out the grounds, are designed to be 14 feet in width. 

 The trees, shrubs and other features introduced are lo- 

 cated chiefly about drive junctions and toward the mar- 

 gin of the area, leaving the centers of the respective 

 lawn-plats quite open. Thus many delightful vistas 

 are opened up throughout the grounds, and a fine op- 

 portunity given for showing off the large variety of 

 ornamental trees and shrubs suggested for use in the 

 place. That the owner has seen fit to devote as much as 

 six acres to ornamental planting is most commendable. 

 Too often in such cases there is a disposition to compress 

 the pleasure and show grounds into such narrow quar- 

 ters that fine effects are out of the question 



In the quarter marked I, beginning with the flat di- 

 rectly east of the house and between it and the main 

 drive, we locate on the north side of said plat a flower- 



bed. The center of the bed can be planted with four li- 

 lacs in assortment, and these surrounded with miscel- 

 laneous hardy and other flowers. To the front or 

 south part of the plat plant Norway maples, with two 

 trees of the same species across the drive to the south, 

 and two more across the drive from this plat to the 

 northeast, overhanging the road that leads eastward to 

 the highway, E. Directly south from where this drive 

 leading from the house enters the highway, we would 

 suggest planting a group of four more Norway maples. 



Returning to near the house : In the plan a cut-leaved 

 Norway maple is located directly south of the two- 

 maples across the drive from the plat just treated, and 

 also one tree each of Schwerdler's Norway maple and 

 the purple-leaved Norway maple. This completes a group 

 of fine Norway maples south of this first lawn-plat. 



East of the drive junction, and as part of the general 

 group I, we would plant the north mass of shrubs shown 

 with 12 plicate-leaved Japan viburnums, and the other, 

 also lying near the drive, with 15 forsythia shrubs in 

 assortment, setting them 4 or 5 feet apart in the mass. 

 Directly east and near to these shrub-beds would be a 

 suitable spot in which to group 6 plants of Douglas dwarf 

 arbor-vitae, setting them 3 or 4 feet apart. In the other 

 shrub-bed here, set 6 or more Japanese maples, choosing- 

 the hardier kinds. Toward the lawn center east of these 

 masses, a tree of European cork-barked maple is shown, a 

 worthy ornament for any American lawn. Directly north 

 of this and near the east and west drive a mass of dwarf 

 spruces is indicated. 



Proceeding now along this lawn-plat toward the south 

 and beginning in the vicinity of 2, we show the following 

 shrubs, trees, etc., in about the order named. The cir- 

 cular bed above 2 consists of geraniums, cannas and 

 other summer growths ; the elongated bed east of and near 

 to the latter is planted centrally lengthwise with 9 blood- 

 leaved Japan plums ( Pruniis Pissardh') surrounded by 

 24 plants of variegated-leaved cornelian cherry, set 3 or 

 4 feet apart. The shrub-bed to the southwest, near the 

 drive, should contain 15 weigelias in assortment, setting: 

 strong-growing kinds like Candida and arborea centrally. 

 Of trees in the heavy mass let the first 12 be sycamore- 

 maples, following these to the southward with groups in 

 the following order ; 2 butternuts, 4 hickories, 3 Ameri- 

 can lindens, 2 European white-leaved lindens, 4 Ameri- 

 can chestnuts, 4 Lombardy poplars, 5 Carolina poplars, 

 3 grey poplars and 2 golden poplars, with west of the 

 heavier group, about midway between 3 and 4, 2 white 

 spruces and i weeping tooth-leaved poplar. In the part 

 now reached (4) there might be, as shown on the plan, 3, 

 European larches, 3 pyramidal spruces, 5 Europeaa 



