HEDGES (CALIFORNIA PRIVET) 
Hedge Plants 
HE value of hedges in ornamental planting is realized. The beauty of living plants is 
greatly to be preferred to the stiff and measured lines of fences. Annual trimming and 
occasional weedings and cultivation are all the care that established hedges require, 
and with age they increase in density and beauty, instead or rotting away with time. 
Evergreen hedges, fresh and green at all seasons, retain their beauty and serve the 
purpose for which they are intended, even in winter. They should be trimmed either 
in May or August and may be kept at any desired height. They increase in density 
and branch out at the ground, making a thick, almost impenetrable wall. As screens 
to unsightly objects and as windbreaks for exposed places, there is nothing better. Deciduous 
hedges grow more rapidly and are less expensive. They require the same care, and should usually 
be trimmed in winter. The flowering hedges are most showy with their long lines of bloom, and the 
thorny plants serve best for defensive purposes. 
Below we attempt to classify the uses to which hedges are generally put, and give each classi¬ 
fication a number; then, in the list of hedging plants that follows, the different varieties are preceded 
by numerals that indicate the classification that they may be suitably used in. For instance, all 
varieties preceded by the numeral 1 are good plants for ordinary hedges. Some varieties are useful 
under several classifications. 
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