264 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
April, 
1914 I 
Shrubs are the garden fixtures and afford a striking display of blossoms with very little attention. The long, drooping chains of flowers are 
Houtte’s Spiraea, a most satisfactory shrub for garden massing 
and fill up the bare spots; then, too, their rapid development gives 
beauty to the country place occupied only for a season. They are 
really emergency plants; the advance guard of the garden. Their 
treatment is somewhat different from perennials, although gen- 
■erally the soil requirements are about the same, except for depth 
of cultivation. You do not need to consider season of bloom so 
closely, as this can be arranged by the time of planting. Annuals 
set out even as late as June will give blossom the first year. A 
great many of them are planted where they are to grow, and a 
seed bed is dispensed with. Some, however—cosmos and salvia — 
are better started under glass. Enough hardy annuals may be 
selected for sowing outdoors, thinning to easy growing spaces as 
they develop. Some of the more delicate sorts, salpiglossis and 
schizanthus, are also better started in flats in the house, but the 
majority, if sown thinly in finely prepared soil outdoors, protected 
from heavy rain, and cut back when they begin to get spindly, will 
give satisfactory results. 
There are some other plants not classed as annual or peren¬ 
nial which should be set out in the spring. These are several of 
the bulbs. They should be planted from April to June, and the 
tubers or bulbs taken in after flowering and wintered in some 
frost-proof place in the cellar. The dahlia is spoken of in a sepa¬ 
rate article in this issue and its wonderful improvements hinted at. 
Besides this, another flower well worth planting is the gladiolus. 
Its enthusiasts have so improved it, that its large, orchid-like 
flowers may be had in the most wonderful shades and colors. 
Where it used to be stiff it is now delicate and especially good for 
cutting. Cannas, if planted where strong effects are needed, and 
above all, not as a bedding plant, are desirable. Some of the lilies 
may be set out in the spring — the ixias, African corn lily and 
montbretias, with their broad range of color, from vermilion to all 
the yellow and orange shades. There is a white summer flower¬ 
ing hyacinth of large size, suitable for combining with gladiolus. 
It grows about three feet in height, and its name is Hyacinthus 
candicans. Add to these some of the summer lilies, the delicate 
zephyranthes, the fall-blooming saffron crocus ( sativus ) and the 
cholchicums and your list of common spring-sown bulbs is com¬ 
plete. 
What has been said about perennials applies specifically to the 
shrubs. They are also perennial plants, but of weedy growth, and 
distinguished by stems or trunks with bark. The beginner would 
do best to confine himself to a few shrubs. A dozen may he given 
that will afford nearly enough field of selection for all purposes. 
The rare specimens and extraordinary sorts should come in the 
graduating stage of gardening. 
The special function of shrubs is to grade between trees and 
low-growing plants or to act as a graduation from lawn to tree. 
Shrubbery massings are best freely planted in irregular groups, 
as they are found in nature. The deciduous shrubs do not adapt 
themselves to irregularity, and should never be ranged around 
defined paths or driveways following their exact direction. They 
frame a lawn, screen an unpleasant view or act as a boundary. 
In another part of this issue their use for boundaries and hedges 
is discussed, as is their planting. Shrubs round out the garden 
scheme well, because of their variation in height and their greater 
growth than flowers. And the difference of their height must be 
taken in consideration in planting, as is to be done with other 
flowers. So also have shrubs a range of bloom, and you must try 
for this principle of succession to get flowers during much of the 
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