In planting the mixed shrubbery border, avoid straight lines. The outer edge of the bed should resemble a seacoast in miniature. 
vistas or create artificial ones that will look natural 
The border must maintain natural 
Efficiency in the Flower Garden 
THE POSITION AND PLANTING OF SHRUBS AND EVERGREENS—BACKGROUNDS, HEDGES AND BORDERS 
—PLANNING NOW TO PLANT NEXT MONTH—HOW TO BUY SHRUBS 
F. F. Rockwell 
I N addition to being beautiful themselves, shrubs enhance, if 
properly arranged, the beauty of all the other features of 
the place—the lawn, the bulbs, the hardy perennials, and even 
the flower garden. But the greatest thought and care should be 
used in planning your shrubs. In the first place, they are the 
most permanent of the landscaping features. A mistake made in 
varieties or grouping will bear bad results for years or will neces¬ 
sitate a great deal of trouble in correction. Furthermore, shrubs 
are the most prominent of any of the landscape materials you 
can use. A mistake made in the flower garden may go unnoticed 
by everyone but yourself; a mistake made in the shrubbery will 
be consciously or unconsciously noticed by every passerby. 
The available specimens for the shrubbery border, for back¬ 
ground and house space plantings and for isolated lawns include 
not only the many fine flowering shrubs but also some that are 
valuable for their foliage, and the smaller evergreens. The latter 
are usually seen only in groups of plantings of a comparatively 
large number. They are much more expensive than the other 
shrubs, and doubtless many people have hesitated to get any great 
number of them when the expense required would go so much 
further in other directions. It is, however, a great mistake to 
feel that they cannot be used as single specimens or three or 
four in different situations about the place. Nothing else will so 
surely give the place an air of distinction and individuality. 
While most shrubs should not be planted until later in the fall, 
about the time of the first hard frost, the coniferous evergreens 
and such evergreen shrubs as rhododendrons, laurel and the like 
should be planted during this month. If there has been a long, 
protracted drought and the ground is very dry, it will be better to 
wait until the advance guard of fall rain has wet the ground. 
But whether the planting is to be done this month or later, now 
is the time to plan for it and to get all the preliminaries under 
way. The work of selecting and planning, if you do it intelli¬ 
gently, may take quite a while. If you are not familiar with the 
shrubs it will pay you well to make a trip to the nearest nursery. 
Otherwise go among your friends or in a good park, where you 
will find the more common varieties. You then can get an idea 
of their general appearance and habit of growth. Data as to 
their height, season of bloom, color, and so forth can be found 
in any good nursery catalogue. A general grouping which will 
aid the beginner more than any complicated tables of figures may 
be made as follows: 
Tall backgrounds and tall groups : Cornus Florida (Dogwood), 
Cercis (Red-bud), Deutzia, Forsythia, Kalmia (Laurel), Syranga 
(Lilac), Rhus (Sumac), Lonicera (Honeysuckle), Spira, Weigela, 
Vibernurn (Snowball) and Golden Elder. 
Low shrubs for foreground or low groups: Spiraea Thunbergii, 
Deutzia, Clethera, Daphne, Andromeda (Lily-of-the-Valley 
shrub), Calluna (Heather) and Erica (Heath). Hardy azaleas 
are generally put in separate beds where they can be given the 
special treatment required. 
Flowering and decorative shrubs for single specimens: Althea 
(Rose of Sharon), Buddleia (Butterfly shrub), Chionanthus 
Virginica (White Fringe), Caly cant Inis Virginica Floridus 
(Strawberry shrub), Crataegus (Hawthorn), Aralia Spinosa 
(Continued on page 54 ) 
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