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PLANTING of shrubs massed around the boundaries of a garden forms a perfect setting 
for the garden picture, a harmonious background against which the bright-colored peonies, 
poppies, irises, phloxes, etc., appear to their greatest advantage. 
Everywhere in the fields we may find beautiful landscapes formed by Nature — the 
open glade and meadow, where the broad carpet of velvety greensward is framed in by 
a background of woodland—first, a fringe of low bushes, with a mass of foliage reaching 
the ground, against which are colonies of white daisies, black-eyed Susans, or blue and 
purple asters. Here and there are tall sunflowers, goldenrods, and meadow rue, or a Joe- 
Pye weed standing out in bold relief. The gleam of the vivid blood-scarlet comes from a lobelia or a giant 
bee balm (Monarda didyma). Another billow of green rises back of these, formed by the viburnums, the 
white dogwood, the pink Judas, and hawthorns, and the still taller scarlet maples and the small trees which 
rise higher and higher to meet the giant oaks, sycamores, and elms, which tower above all. 
This idea of Nature’s landscape can be carried out in every garden, drawn to a full scale in the country 
where there is room to spare, and to a smaller scale in the large garden, where the lawn is simply framed in 
by the more refined and smaller shrubs, with their border of perennials in front, in every case forming a 
screen that gives a privacy to the home-grounds, shielding the world within from the world without. 
Plant shrubs in masses of several of each variety where possible; remember they are to form the frame¬ 
work of your garden landscape, and do not spoil the picture by dotting them all over the lawn and garden. 
Allow them to develop so that each will show its distinct character. Above all things, beware of the man 
with the shears who has a mania for barbering them all to one model. 
In pruning, remember that all early-flowering shrubs bloom on last year’s wood and should not be 
pruned until after they have bloomed (otherwise the bloom will be destroyed for that season), at which 
time the old, wornout wood should be cut away entirely, allowing the vigorous, younger shoots to remain, 
shortening or cutting away entirely all weak growths. All late-flowering shrubs—altheas, hydrangeas, 
etc. — bloom on wood of this season’s growth, and should be pruned in early spring, cutting back severely 
to induce a vigorous new growth. 
Lilacs 
(Written especially for this book by Mrs. Francis King, “Orchard House,** Alma, Mich.) 
No one has voiced the praises of the Lilac as they should be sung—a writer with the gift, say, of him who 
wrote those beautiful words of the sweet pea, “The sweet pea has a keel that was meant to seek all shores; 
it has wings that were meant to fly across all continents; it has a standard which is friendly to all nations; 
and it has a fragrance like the universal Gospel; yea, a sweet prophecy of welcome everywhere that has 
been abundantly fulfilled.” 
Few flowers nave received so rapturously perfect an expression of praise as this. The Lilac deserves one. 
Its virtues are: its graceful beauty of form and color of flower; the aspect of the tree or shrub on which these 
are borne; its fragrance, unique, and filled with sentiment for Americans; and the ease with which it may be 
successfully grown. Unlike some garden subjects, the older a Lilac grows, the finer becomes its appearance. 
As instances, take the specimens of Syringa pubescens at Highland Park, Rochester, or the great Lilac 
trees, named Hybrids, at the Arnold Arboretum, Boston. 
The great Lilac collections of the Arnold Arboretum and of Highland Park, Rochester, N. Y., 
T. A. Havemeyer’s interesting collection on Long Island, and the fine gift of over two hundred of this genus 
to Montclair, N. J., by Frank T. Presby, place this beautiful May-flowering shrub within reach of most 
dwellers in the northern Atlantic seaboard states, and so infectious is the love of and desire for beauty that 
I predict it will not be long before the glorious newer Lilac hybrids and species will be found over all of the 
northern states. 
The Lilac has, so far as I know, only two foes to contend with: over-much rain, and mildew from long- 
continued heat or drought, or from other causes; and even then, these causes do not always have unfavorable 
effects. Borers and fungi are less frequent enemies. The Lilac is one of the hardiest shrubs known; it will 
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