Qreeti T{iver Home TSlursery, T^obards, Kentucky 
33 
Ornamental Shrubs 
Add Wealth and Beauty, Charm and Color to the Home 
Grounds 
People generally are appreciating 
more the permanent value and beauty 
of shrubs. The charm and grace they 
lend to the home grounds is invaluable 
and if judicious selections are made it 
is possible to have a continuous succes¬ 
sion of bloom from early April until 
frost. One may have an “ elegant 
house” but it is impossible to have a 
beautiful home that is not surrounded 
in some degree with the verdure of na¬ 
ture. No matter how substantial or 
how costly, no building is complete 
until it is set in a frame of God’s own 
making. Many an old unsightly build¬ 
ing is made beautiful by the shrubs and 
foliage with which it is surrounded. 
Your new house may be all that you can 
ask for, the niftiest on the street or 
highway, but you must know that in a 
few years nicer and newer ones will 
overshadow it. If you let nature help 
you, you need fear no rivals. The new¬ 
comer must wait until they can grow 
surroundings as lovely as yours to catch 
up with you. It is estimated by real 
estate men that up to a certain amount, 
every dollar that is put into permanent 
plantings add three dollars to the sala- Spirea Billardi 
bility. That is why the best home archi¬ 
tects advise from five to ten per cent of 
a new house cost be reserved for a complete grounds planting. The whole grounds may be 
improved perhaps for less than the cost of your furniture in one room and the outside is 
certainly seen and judged by more people every day. The selling price of residential prop¬ 
erty is determined by how attractive it is, not by Avhat the building cost. Paint deteriorates 
but shrubs grow into wealth and beauty as the years go by. 
Planting and Arrangement 
From the standpoint of good looks, plant tall growing shrubs in the background, at the 
corners where height is needed and against foundation. Plant medium height shrubs next, 
and then the dwarfs in front. In many cases it would be better to plant shrubs in groups 
of several to one side of the lawn instead of planting one in a certain place and spoiling the 
effect of the open lawn. In most cases three, six or eight of one variety should be used in a 
particular grouping. Several such groupings make an excellent border or foundation plant¬ 
ing. Allow about three feet apart for the larger shrubs. Do not follow a straight line in 
planting. Dig the holes large enough to freely admit the roots and tramp soil in firm. A 
mulch of strawed manure applied in the fall and dug in in the spring is excellent. Prune 
summer flowering shrubs in winter, but don’t prune spring flowering shrubs until after they 
bloom. 
