HOUSE AND GARDEN 
April. 
I 9 I 3 
The yellow blossoms of the forsythia precede almost all other spring 
bloom. However, place the shrub in the center of others 
comes when the shrubs are not planted quite thickly enough. 
These general utility shrubs are adapted to large places and 
small; and the little diagrams here given show units from which a 
planting scheme of almost any size may be built up, by repeating 
them as suggested. Naturally a large planting need not be lim¬ 
ited to so few varieties as seven; so a “second choice” list is 
given to be combined with the first, thereby increasing the flower 
effect of the mass. Do not overlook the beauty of shrubbery 
foliage, however, in the desire to have plenty of flowers; for the 
green of shrubs en masse may be quite as much a feature of the 
garden or of the landscape as the green of trees. And autumn 
brings color quite as much to the shrubbery group as it does to the 
trees, when eyes are open to see. 
The shrubs which are recommended in these two lists are not 
novelties by any means; indeed, a novelty in the shrubbery world 
is usually the thing to be avoided. The first named is just our 
old, well-known and well-loved purple lilac; the second— Vibur¬ 
num Opulus —is the native highbush cranberry—a shrub which 
has not a peer in the world, to my mind. Everything about it is 
lovely, from its lobed leaves, suggestive of the maple a little bit, 
to its large cymes of white blossoms and the subsequent abund¬ 
ance of scarlet berries. Usually this is counted a shrub of special 
purpose, just for these berries. But I prefer to make use of it 
everywhere, as a general utility variety, and not limit it to winter 
effects. It is too valuable to be so limited. 
The second is another native, a cornel —Comas paniculata — 
which is almost if not quite as fine a specimen as the viburnum. 
The two species have much in common to the casual observer, but 
may always be known one from the other by the division of the 
flowers into four parts in the cornel, into five parts in the vibur¬ 
num. The leaves of the former are always smooth at their outer 
are border plantings; C, a screen to be seen from both sides, and D a 
small entrance planting 
Shrubs should frame a lawn, not be scattered about it or have formal lines. This border shows a shrubbery grouping in which Spiraea Van Houtlei 
predominates. This plant with its arching branches smothered in fleecy white lasts well and is very showy 
