PLANTING FOR AUTUMN AND WINTER EFFECT. 



171 



herbaceous plants look far better when the same variety is massed 

 together, and before long gardeners will recognise the advantage of 

 treating shrubs in the same fashion so as to develop the full beauty, 

 whether of their flowers, foliage, or wood. I will now mention in detail 

 some plants which, owing to their cheapness and hardiness, are suitable 

 for planting in quantity and whose foliage turns a fine colour in autumn. 



Pyrus arbutifolia or Aronia floribunda can be bought from some of the 

 wholesale nurserymen at a very small price per hundred. It is a vigorous 

 grower, and after it has been planted twelve months it should be cut down, 

 when it will shoot up again freely and make good compact bushes, which 

 are profusely covered with sweet-scented white flowers, and later with 

 small black fruit. In the autumn the leaves turn a bright clear red, and 

 remain in that state from ten days to a fortnight, according to the 

 weather. 



Euonymus europceus, or common Spindlewood, treated in the same 

 fashion, that is to say cut down in the spring when it gets at all leggy 

 and bare below, will make a fine free-growing bed of rich green colour, 

 covered in its season with rosy-pink seed-cases, and will require no 

 care or attention except weeding while the plants are young. 



Rosa rubrifolia. — This is very seldom grown in England, nor does 

 it, I think, figure generally in the nurserymen's catalogues here, but it 

 is largely used on the Continent for hedges, and can be bought anywhere 

 in France or Germany, strong plants at 6d. a piece, with of course a 

 reduction if bought in any quantity. It grows fast, and, if pegged down, 

 makes a very showy bed. The flower is a pretty pink, though insignificant, 

 but the fruit is showy, and both wood and leaf are a soft downy plum- 

 colour. If planted near a mass of Golden Elder or Golden Symphoricarpos, 

 the effect is brilliant and pleasing. 



Rosa rugosa, the Japanese Rose, is, of course, well known, and the 

 wealth of odorous flower, especially of the white variety, is not to be 

 despised ; but the fine haws through August and September are its chief 

 merit, being large, abundant, and showy. The rough hirsute stems, too, 

 show up well when the leaf is off ; moreover, it has the advantage of being 

 cheap and reproducing itself readily by suckers. It requires no treatment 

 except the knifing back of the strong shoots in the spring. 



Leycesteria formosa, a very old-fashioned and meritorious shrub now 

 too little planted. The white Jasmin-like flowers, backed up by the warm 

 Bougainvillsea-like bracts, followed again immediately behind by the 

 small black cherry-like fruit, without stalk, mark it out to any one who 

 has a seeing eye, and, coming late in August, are very welcome. It is 

 sub-evergreen, and a rampant grower where the frosts are not too hard 

 on it. It stands the knife perfectly, and can be pruned back in spring as 

 hard as is thought desirable. The bright green of the large hollow 

 stems makes it useful in winter. 



Kerria japonica var. — Its habit is quite different from the common 

 green type, as it is compact and bushy. The effect in a mass of its delicate 

 silver foliage is excellent, being soft and not the least garish ; it has the 

 additional virtue of doing comparatively well under the shade of trees, 

 and it holds its leaf until winter is well advanced, when the green stems 

 show up almost as bright as the Leycesteria. 



