PLANT SHRUBS NOW

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 171, 6 August 1937, Page 14

PLANT SHRUBS NOW

A planting of shrubs massed around the boundaries of a garden forms a perfect setting for the garden picture, a karmonious background against which bright coloured annuals and perennials appear to their greatest advantage. Shrubs, constitute the permanent feature to the garden and their selection warrants not only care, but good judgment. Should the home gardener not be conversant with the many varieties available, all of which possess their individual characteristics in applying themselves to garden work, he would be well advised to consulfc a qualified assistant at the garden store. An imperfect plapting is not only unsatisfactory but, jf remedied, means years of wasted effort and time. Nature in her inimitable exactness has planted and formed some beautiful landscapes in our very midst. A tour through the outlyihg bushlands gives us a fair' conception as to how we should endeavour to blend our own colours and schemes. Nature 's idea of landseape nan be carried out in every garden, drawn to a full scale in the outlying euburbs, where there is room to spare^ and to a smaller cale in a large garden, where th« lawn is simply framed in by more reflned or taller shrubs,' with their border of perennials in front, and in every ease forming a screen that gives a privacy to the home-grounds, shieldnng the world witkin from the world without. When space affords, plant shrubs in masses of several of each variety; remember they are to form the fraxnework of your garden landseape, and do not spoil the picture by dotting them all over the lawn and garden. Allow them to develop so that caek will show its distinct character. Above all things, beware of the man with the shears who has a mania for cutting them all to one model. In pruning, remember that all earlyflowering shrubs bloom on last year's wood, and should not be pruned until after they have bloomed, otherwise the bloom will bo destroyed for that season, at which time the old, worn-out wood should he cut away entirely, allowing the vigorous younger shoots to remain shortening or cutting away entirely all weak growths. All late flowering shrubs bloom on wood of this season 's growth and should be pruned in the early spring, cutting back sevcrely to induce a vigorous new grovvlTi.