52 
House & Garden 
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Sheared Trees and Hedges for the 
Formal Grounds 
( Continued, f 
less range of possibilities. As yet good 
examples are relatively rare in this 
country, although in the old Colonial 
formal gardens topiary was the rule 
rather than the exception. Not in its 
exaggerated forms of ships, birds and 
what-not, but as stiff sheared hedges, 
trees and borders of box, purely archi¬ 
tectural in effect. 
I say architectural advisedly, for that 
is the real appeal that sheared work 
holds for the most of us. Only in rare 
instances can the clipped figures of ani¬ 
mals, etc., seem other than bizarre to 
us. We will be wise to eliminate them 
from serious consideration, confining 
our attention to the two other main 
usages to which this sort of work can 
be put—as boundaries to garden areas, 
large or small; and as accent points in 
the landscape scheme. 
The large photograph on page 33 
illustrates the former of these two appli¬ 
cations. Here clipped barberry is used 
to outline the formal grass walks, while 
arborvitae. sheared to perpendicular 
sides and flat top, forms an admirable 
enclosing wall of living green. Privet 
could have been used in place of the 
arborvitse, although it is rather distress¬ 
ingly common and is under the distinct 
disadvantage of losing its leaves in win¬ 
ter and so presenting a cheerless appear¬ 
ance at a season when every available 
touch of green is needed out of doors. 
The path and flower bed edgings could 
be of box, in localities where that time- 
honored shrub can be grown success¬ 
fully. 
There has recently been developed a 
dwarf barberry which bids fair to be¬ 
come a general favorite for edgings and 
low hedges. It came originally from the 
ordinary Thunberg type, but is a true 
dwarf and much more compact and sym¬ 
metrical than its ancestors. The name 
box-barberry describes it well, for it 
resembles box almost more than it does 
barberry. Unlike box, however, it is 
perfectly hardy and succeeds wherever 
Thunberg’s barberry can be grown. 
The use of individual specimens as 
accent points is demonstrated in both 
the illustrations on page 33. In the 
large garden the tall arborvitass are vir¬ 
tually untrimmed, their naturally regu¬ 
lar, columnar form giving a decidedly 
formal effect. The lower picture shows 
rom page 33) 
privet sheared to two artificial shapes— 
the round or ball style, and the spiral. 
It is perhaps needless to say that 
these completed effects are not the re¬ 
sult of one, or even two or three, clip¬ 
pings. It takes several years to develop 
such dense, well formed specimens, three 
or four shearings each year being far 
better than one. Not only does the cut¬ 
ting remove the branch tips in the de¬ 
sired spots; it results also in thickening 
the remaining growth. You simply se¬ 
lect the particular form desired for the 
specimen, hedge or edging, as the case 
may be, and then shear again and again 
with this definitely in mind. 
A full list of trees and shrubs adapted 
to topiary work would be too long to 
give here, but the following kinds pre¬ 
sent a wide enough variety to cover the 
majority of requirements on the private 
place: 
Acer campestre: Shrub of dense growth 
and dull green foliage, one of the maple 
family. Deciduous. 
Berberis Thunbergii: Thunberg’s bar¬ 
berry. Deciduous; red berries in autumn. 
Buxus japonica: Japanese box. Ever¬ 
green. 
Buxus sempervirens: Common box. 
Evergreen, hardy nearly as far north as 
Boston. 
Carpinits Betulus: European horn¬ 
beam. Deciduous. 
Cornus mas: Cornelian cherry. Decid¬ 
uous; scarlet berries. 
Cratagus oxyacantha: Hawthorn. De¬ 
ciduous ; scarlet berries. 
Evonymus radicans: Evonymus. Ever¬ 
green. 
Ilex glabra: Inkberry. Evergreen. 
Ligustrum Ibota: Privet. Deciduous. 
Ligustrum ovalifolium: California 
privet. Semi-evergreen. 
Pinus densifl-ora var. pumila: Japanese 
red pine. Evergreen. 
Pinus montana: Swiss mountain pine. 
Evergreen. 
Retinispora. Evergreen. 
Rhamnus cathartica: Buckthorn. Ever¬ 
green. 
Taxus cuspidata: Yew. Evergreen. 
Tsuga canadensis: Hemlock. Ever¬ 
green. 
Viburnum opulus var. nanum: Euro¬ 
pean cranberry-bush. Deciduous. 
Viburnum prunifolium: Black haw, or 
stag-bush. Deciduous. 
Hewitt 
Individual clipped specimens are best kept rather simple in 
form, as the more elaborate designs are harmonious only under 
conditions rarely found in America 
