Trees and Shrubs for English Gardens

by E. T. Cook

GROUPING OF TREES AND SHRUBS

If this subject were considered with only a reasonable amount of thought, and the practice of it controlled by good taste, there is nothing that would do more for the beauty of our gardens or grounds. Nothing can so effectually destroy good effect as the usual senseless mixture of deciduous and evergreen shrubs that, alas! is so commonly seen in gardens—a mixture of one each of a quantity of perhaps excellent things planted about three feet apart. There would be nothing to be said against this if it were the deliberate intention of any individual, for, as a garden is for the owner's happiness, it is indisputably his right to take his pleasure in it as he will, and if he says, "I have only space for a hundred plants, and I wish them to be all different," that is for him to decide. But when the mixture is made from pure ignorance or helplessness it is then that advice may be of use, and that the assurance may be given that there are better ways that are just as easy at the beginning, and that with every year will be growing on towards some definite scheme of beauty, instead of merely growing up into a foolish tangle of horticultural imbecility.

If the intending planter has no knowledge it is well worth his while to take advice at the beginning, not to plant at random and to feel, a few years later, first doubt, and then regret, and then, as knowledge grows, to have to face the fact that it is all wrong and that much precious time has been lost.

How to group is a large question, depending on all the conditions of the place under consideration. Whether a group is to be of tall or short growing shrubs or trees, whether it is to be of three or three hundred, and so on. The knowledge that can answer is the knowledge of gardening of the better kind. The whole thing should be done carefully on paper beforehand, or there will again be repented the error of huddled single plants. The groups will have to be well shaped and well sized and well related to each other and all that is near, or they may be merely a series of senseless blocks, not intelligently formed groups at all.

Then, in proper relation to the groups, single plants can be used with the best possible effect, as, for instance, a snowy Mespilus or a Cherry or a Pyrus floribunda against a dark massing of Yew or Holly; or a Forsythia suspensa casting out its long flowering branches from among bushes of Berberis. Then the fewer individuals will have their full value, while the larger masses will have dignity even when in leaf only, and their own special beauty at the time when they are in flower or fruit. For some flowering and fruiting bushes are best grouped, while a few are best seen standing alone, and it is only knowledge of good gardening that can guide the designer in his decisions on these points. Still it does not follow that a shrub or flowering tree cannot be used both for groups and single use, for such an one as the Forsythia just mentioned is also of charming effect in its own groups, with the red-tinted Berberis or the quiet-coloured Savins, or whatever be the lower growing bushy mass that is chosen to accompany it. Every one can see the great gain of such arrangements when they are made, but to learn to make them, and even to perceive what are the plants to group together, and why, that is the outcome of the education of the garden artist.

In the Royal Gardens, Kew, the best of plants may be seen and, to a considerable degree, the best ways of using them in gardens.

GROUPING OF SHRUB AND DAFFODIL.

The one-thing-at-a-time planting is always a safe guide, but as the planter gains a firmer grasp of his subject, so he may exercise more freedom in its application. Nearly every garden, shrubbery, and ornamental tree plantation is spoilt or greatly marred by too great a mixture of incongruous growths. Nothing wants more careful consideration. On the ground in the open air, and sitting at home quietly thinking, the question should be carefully thought out. The very worst thing to do is to take a nursery catalogue and make out from it a list of supposed wants. The right thing is to make a plan of the ground, to scale, if possible, though a rougher one may serve, and mark it all down in good time beforehand, not to wait until the last moment and then mark it; and not to send the list to the nursery till the ground is well forward for planting, so that the moment the plants come they may go to their places.