725 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
WHAT TO PLANT for NATURAL LANDSCAPE EFFECTS 
In the old style gardening we find the 
arrangement to be formal, but the up- 
to-date gardener labors for the variety 
in form and for harmony of the whole. 
Nothing seems to be easier than to ar- 
range a few trees in the form of a nat- 
ural and beautiful group, and nothing 
really is easier to the practiced hand. 
Yet experience has taught that the av- 
erage gardener in ornamental planting, 
almost invariably crowds the trees into a 
close, regular clump or rows which has 
a most formal and unsightly appearance, 
and so much different from the easy, 
flowing outline of a group of trees or 
shrubs as they should be planted. Nat- 
ural groups being formed by trees or 
shrubs of different distances and sizes, 
and at different distances from each 
other, often two or three by a mixture 
of those of the largest size with others 
of inferior growth, are full of variety 
in their outlines and from the same 
causes no two groups are exactly alike. 
Compare the natural or properly 
planted groups of trees with one of the 
same age and growth, planted nearly 
at the same distance in a regular form 
and nearly alike in every respect, you 
will find the natural groups are full of 
openings or hollows. Trees advancing 
before or retiring behind each other, 
producing a variety of deep shadows 
and brilliant lights ; in walking about 
them the form changes at every step; 
new combinations, new lights and 
shades, new inlets present themselves 
in succession, and this, of course, can- 
not be accomplished by one who has 
never studied along such lines of work. 
In many places where new residences 
are built, or where old ones are to be 
improved, the grounds will often be 
found, partially or to a considerable ex- 
tent, clothed with belts or masses of 
wood, either previously planted, or pre- 
served from the axe. How easily, if 
good judgment is used, we may turn 
these to advantage in the natural style 
of gardening; and by judicious trim- 
ming when too thick, or additions when 
too much scattered, often produce good 
effects in the most magical manner. 
Planting and grouping to produce the 
beautiful, fullness and softness of out- 
line, and perfectly luxuriant develop- 
ment is absolutely necessary. This is 
accomplished by choosing mainly trees 
of graceful habit and flowing outlines; 
the after treatment of trees, where the 
beautiful is aimed at, should be pruning 
with great care, and indeed scarcely at 
all, except to remedy disease or to cor- 
From an Address by E. Bollinger, Before 
the Illinois State Horticultural Society 
rect a bad form. The luxuriance and 
development of the trees should be en- 
couraged by good soil, and repeated 
manurings where the soil is poor. 
To produce the natural and pictur- 
esque, which is practically the same, 
the landscape gardener will depend 
mostly on irregularity. The grouping 
therefore, must often be done in the 
most irregular manner. He will rarely, 
if ever, use single specimens, as every 
object should seem to connect itself with 
something else, and the grouping should 
be more of the wildness of the finest 
and most forcible portions of natural 
woods or forests, planting the trees 
closely and irregularly. These will grow 
up into wilder and more striking forms, 
the outlines will be distinctly different 
from one another and the limbs some- 
times twisted and irregular. The out- 
lines should be intermixed with smaller 
undergrowth of similar character, flow- 
ering shrubs, etc. Sturdy and bright 
vines such as bittersweet, honeysuckles, 
clematis, Virginia creepers, trumpet 
vines, all of which should be allowed to 
clamber over occasional trees in care- 
less manner. The grass should be al- 
lowed to grow in a careless and loose 
state, like that of tangled dells and nat- 
ural wood. The eye should rest on soft- 
ly rounded masses of foliage, or single 
open groups of trees, with finely bal- 
anced and graceful heads and branches. 
A broken or crooked limb, leaning 
trunk, or several stems springing from 
the same base are frequently peculiari- 
ties that add to the picturesque. For 
this reason the gardener desires to 
encourage a certain wildness of growth, 
and allows his trees and shrubs to 
spring up in thickets to assist this ef- 
fect; he tries to accomplish occasional 
irregularity of stem and outline, he ad- 
mires a twisted limb or a moss covered 
branch or trunk of a tree, and in prun- 
ing he therefore is careful to leave pre- 
cisely what in formal specimens would 
be the aim to remove; in other words 
he would direct his mind towards in- 
creasing the natural, striking and pe- 
culiar habits of trees and shrubs. The 
amateur will easily see that planting, 
grouping and culture to produce the 
beautiful and harmonious, require a less 
artistic eye but more care and atten- 
tion than performing the same opera- 
tions to elicit the picturesque and nat- 
ural effect. 
We cannot help but admire a beauti- 
ful lawn, a refined and polished land- 
scape garden with all the richness and 
beauty developed by high culture; we 
admire the beauty of form, the selec- 
tion of trees, shrubs and flowers; we 
admire the graceful curved walks and 
drives, the silvery waters of the pond, 
the little winding brooks that some- 
times adorn our modern places where 
water is plentiful, but in the natural 
landscape garden there is more effect 
and more striking growth and com- 
binations which we feel are not only 
work but the work of an artist. One 
who has not studied nature with an 
artistic eye and who is not capable 
of imitating in his plantations the nat- 
ural in its many variations, should 
consult those that know. To accom- 
plish the natural we generally look 
for a comparatively wild or wooded 
place and I may safely say that if such 
a place is on hand and if the gardener 
has the true feeling for his work, he 
will always find it much easier than if 
he would strive to produce an ornamen- 
tal effect, as the majority of the places 
to be planted for the beautiful must be- 
gin nearly anew, choosing places not 
for wildness but for openness, sunny 
plains, planted with more of the formal 
stately trees and shrubs. 
Any person who will take the trou- 
ble to reflect for a moment on the great 
diversity of surface, change of position, 
aspect, views, conditions of soil, resi- 
dences, public streets, climate, etc., will 
at once understand how difficult, or, in- 
deed how impossible it is to lay down 
any fixed or exact rules for arranging 
plantations of small or extensive es- 
tates or parks. What would be adapted 
to a hilly rolling estate would often be 
found entirely unfit for adoption in a 
smooth, level surface and the contrary, 
and yet the two following principles 
should be constantly followed and kept 
in view; namely, the production of the 
whole landscape and the proper connec- 
tion of all the different parts or de- 
tails. All grounds to be laid out, how- 
ever, large or small, call for the exer- 
cise of good judgment and taste. 
The house should be the chief or 
leading object, should form, if possi- 
ble, the central point and should be 
given importance; groups of trees 
should form the background ; and where 
outbuildings approach the same neigh- 
borhood or belong to the same party, 
should be hidden by planting from the 
main edifice. I do not mean by that a 
thick wood should be planted around the 
building to impede the free circulation 
of air and shut out the sunlight so 
