HOUSE AND GARDEN 
April, 1910 
to death and having no chance to grow, shake your resolution nor 
divert you from your course. They may think you crazy—that 
is to be expected, but you will know that you are not, and that 
time, and your grounds, even if they are only 50 x 100 ft., will be 
your vindication. 
It is very simple if one wishes to reason it out, since any 
plant set in an open space and encouraged to “develop” is but a 
few steps short of the plant trained with the avowed purpose 
of producing phenomenal flowers or fruits, and phenomenal flowers 
or fruits are of absolutely no merit as garden ornaments and the 
plant trained to produce them usually suffers in the process. 
Hence it follows that a plant 
— or, to speak more definitely, 
a shrub — set singly as a speci¬ 
men in a garden or for the 
adornment of grounds, is an 
anomaly. 
Grounds are not orna¬ 
mented by shrubs of this kind, 
for it is the shrub itself which 
holds attention under these 
circumstances. Wonder and 
perhaps a certain crude admi¬ 
ration are excited by it — but 
the idea of grounds or a garden 
is lost sight of completely. 
There is no impression of 
charm and beauty resting 
upon all, of a dwelling rising 
from a suitable setting, of an 
outdoors that appeals and 
satisfies, of a picture that is 
complete. These things are 
sacrificed to a monstrous some¬ 
thing calculated to draw an 
astonished “oh!” from the 
beholder. 
With the resolution to 
always mass “shrubs” until 
they form “shrubbery” and 
to always plant them so near 
together that they will inter¬ 
fere and encroach upon each 
other outrageously, firmly and 
immovably fixed so that noth¬ 
ing can shake it, let us exam¬ 
ine first the points that come 
up in laying out the ground 
plan of such border or mass. 
The ground plan itself takes 
precedence overall other work, 
consequently it is upon that 
that the gardener must start, 
indoors instead of out. 
Regularity, so far as that 
implies planting in rows or 
squares, is of course to be avoided in an informal shrubbery border. 
But haphazard, grotesque zig-zagging is not the way to avoid 
it, neither is what nurserymen call “staggering.” A carefully 
worked out plan is the only way, with an equally careful transfer 
of it from the paper to the ground. 
Such a plan is made by first drawing in lightly the general 
large curves representing the inner line of the shrubbery — it 
being assumed of course that the plot to be planted is laid off to 
scale on the drawing paper. Then, starting at either end, the 
first shrub is located where its spread of branches can be calculated 
to come on this curve; follow all along this inner line first, leaving 
a space of from two and one-half to four feet between the shrubs, 
depending on their size. 
Next, proceed to fill in back of this—in some places a dozen 
plants may be required within a very small distance along the 
boundary while in others only one or two will be needed to build 
up the border. 
The species and variety of practically every one should be 
determined as the shrub is set down upon the plan, otherwise 
difficulties will arise over the distances between them. In a very 
large planting this is not always essential as there will be certain 
locations calling for many of one kind. But even here it is well 
to have a general idea of 
what each lesser group com¬ 
posing the large group is to 
be, as they are set down. It 
takes time—but it is the thor¬ 
ough way. 
In field work a plan is 
divided into squares of con¬ 
venient size and every shrub 
in a given square is located 
by a stake driven into the 
ground and labeled to corre¬ 
spond with the label on the 
shrub, before any planting in 
that particular square is really 
done. 
Reference has been made 
in a previous article to sky 
line. It is as much to be con¬ 
sidered in planting shrubs as 
trees, for although the top of 
shrubbery may not cut the 
sky when viewed under ordi¬ 
nary circumstances, the out¬ 
line of its top, taken as a 
whole, has an important place 
in a composition. 
To give this sufficient vari¬ 
ation there must be intervals 
of comparatively low-growing 
varieties that are not backed 
up by larger specimens; and 
these intervals, constituting 
the variation in the “profile” 
or vertical section of the 
border, must be as carefully 
thought out and planned as 
the ground plan of the group. 
Generally speaking they will 
take the ground plan for their 
guide and rise from it quite 
as the elevation of a building 
rises from its plan; but here, 
as in architecture, the designer 
must have the instinct which 
adopts the right form and rejects the others. 
The diagram appended shows the principle, and the manner in 
which the plan serves as a guide to the profile. Notice that 
wherever the border deepens on the ground, it rises higher in the 
elevation; by determining the ground plan first, therefore the 
elevation will rise from it almost automatically and with no trouble 
to the designer and no confusion. And a glance at the elevation 
shows exactly where the tallest and the lowest shrubs must 
stand and the intermediate ones as well. Make your plan there¬ 
fore first, in rough sketch form, then develop the elevation or profile 
(Continued on page xxii) 
This “elevation” of the border shows it, particularly the upper 
outline of it, as it would appear to a person standing on the lawn and 
looking against it. Wherever the mass broadens on the ground, the sky 
line rises higher—wherever it narrows on the ground the sky line 
descends. Dotted lines across the elevation are at the 5, 10 and 15 foot 
elevations respectively. 
Number and Name 
Bloom 
Height 
Color of Flower 
1 Callicarpa purpurea. 
August. 
4 feet 
Pink 
3 Amygdalus communis, alba flore 
pleno. 
May. 
6 feet 
White 
3 Clethra alnifolia. 
July-Sept. 
8 to 10 feet 
White 
4 Deutzia gracilis. 
5 Deutzia gracilis, rosea. 
May-June. 
May-June. 
4 feet 
4 feet 
White 
Pink 
6 Azalea mollis. 
7 Hydrangea quercifolia. 
8 Hypericum Moserianum. 
9 Lonicera Alberti. 
April-May. 
June. 
July-Sept. 
June. 
3 to 8 feet 
6 feet 
2 feet 
3 feet 
3 feet 
5 feet 
6 feet 
10 feet 
10 feet 
7 feet 
8 feet 
12 feet 
8 feet 
12 feet 
15 feet 
6 feet 
Red-yellow-white 
Pinkish white 
Golden yellow 
Rose pink 
White 
Violet blue 
Yellowish white 
White 
White or pink 
White 
White, tinged red 
White seed vessels 
White 
11 Caryopteris mastacanthus. 
1 2 Eleagnus longipes. 
Aug.-Oct. 
April-May. 
14 Lonicera Tatarica. 
15 Spiraea arguta. 
16 Azalea viscosa. 
May-June. 
May. 
June-July. 
18 Comus alba. 
19 Rhamnus Frangula. 
May. 
Inconspicuous 
Pink 
21 Lonicera fragrantissima. 
March-April. 
Creamy white 
8 feet 
12 to 15 ft. 
20 feet 
20 feet 
8 feet 
8 feet 
Brown 
White 
23 Crataegus Oxyacantha. 
White 
White and lilac 
Pinkish lilac 
Yellow 
25 Syringa vulgaris. 
27 Forsythia Fortunei. 
April. 
