WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
April, 1919 
1 12 
Now no one knows better than the 
private gardener how hard it is 
often to convince the owner of a 
homestead of the benefit derived 
from the removal of one or more 
ill-placed trees, and around the 
farm house, I take it, such trees 
are often left standing because of 
some sentiment that may be con- 
nected with them, but if ill-placed 
there is no more reason why they 
should remain as there is a reason 
for an ill-placed picture remaining 
on the walls of the home, and 
every woman knows that a picture 
or pictures on the walls will 
look better in one place than in 
another, and in order to produce 
harmony must hang “just so!” 
If we find that we have too 
many trees or trees, of the wrong 
character we must make sacrifices 
and dig them out, and do some 
more digging if we have no trees 
at all. Carolina poplars and Cot- 
tonwood of all kinds are undesir- 
able trees for the home grounds, 
while they are quick growing they 
shed too many leaves all summer 
and keep the place littered up con- 
tinually and so give it an untidy 
appearance. I might mention 
however, the Lombard poplar, 
with its spire-like top and trim 
shape as a possible exception. 
Spruce, Pine and other Coni- 
fers never look well if used in 
mixed planting, but when Coni- 
fers are used exclusively and in 
large masses most beautiful effects 
can be created. The lawn should 
always be open. Arrange the 
shrubbery in solid clusters or 
borders with irregular outline 
along the sides of the lot and a 
few properly selected shrubs 
placed directly against the house 
will enhance its appearance by 
breaking the sharp outlines. When 
arranging for planting we must 
take into consideration : the ex- 
posure, sun or shade, and should 
select shrubs Avith regard to their 
flowers and berries, also [heir au- 
tumn foliage, their size, time of 
flowering and their hardiness. 
Shrubs with yellow foliage never 
look well, always appear to be 
sickly. Shrubs that succeed in 
the shade are the different privets, 
barberries, bush honeysuckles, 
snowberries, mock orange or syr- 
inga, hardy hydrangeas and then 
we have the hardy ferns for shady 
places. In grouping shrubbery 
borders one can always make a 
better show by planting a solid 
mass of one kind in a given place, 
adjoining, if the the border is long 
enough, with another variety of 
several plants. Spiraea Van Hout- 
iis you all know is adapted for 
many purposes, and whether used 
for hedge planting, grouping or as 
individual specimen plants it 
should be found on every place the 
same as the high bush cranberry, 
a variety of snowball with flat 
clusters of white flowers and beau- 
tiful brilliant red berries that re- 
main all winter, as the birds will 
not touch them. Then we have 
the snowberries, the Indian and 
also the flowering currant, the 
bush honeysuckles, the beautiful 
weigelias, and the lilacs that 
make effective back grounds for 
smaller shrubs. A few well placed 
cut leaf sumachs always give a 
touch of refinement to any shrub- 
bery. But it is not necessarily the 
number of varieties that go to 
make successful ornamental plant- 
ings, it is the way they are placed 
that brings out the tasty arrange- 
ment. 
