“Place makes a difference in the selection of a tree.  Suppose the lower portion of the grounds is a bit low and moist, then the spot is ideal for a willow.  Don’t group trees together which look awkward.  I never should have Peter and Myron march together in school.  Why?  Because they look wretchedly together.  Myron makes Peter look short and Peter causes Myron to look overgrown.  So it is with trees.  A long-looking poplar does not go with a nice rather rounded little tulip tree.  A juniper, so neat and prim, would look silly beside a spreading chestnut.  One must keep proportion and suitability in mind.

“I’d never advise the planting of a group of evergreens close to a house, and in the front yard.  The effect is very gloomy indeed.  Houses thus surrounded are overcapped by such trees and are not only gloomy to live in, but truly unhealthful.  The chief requisite inside a house is sunlight and plenty of it.

“There are no shrubs on the school grounds.  You had spoken of doing that but bulbs took up the attention of the girls this fall.  And as for you boys—­you were attending to your own crops.  Shrubbery is very pleasing if properly placed.  It is just the thing to fill in corners near buildings, to help define the turns in walks, and to use as hedges.  Usually one shrub standing by itself is not nearly so pleasing as one tree by itself.  It has a squatty and isolated appearance.  There is a corner close by the school building where shrubs should go.  Why?  Because the place looks bare and staring, and the building is very ugly at that point; the shrubs would fill in the space, and make the building look much better.

“As trees are chosen because of certain good points, so shrubs should be.  In a clump I should wish some which bloomed early, some which bloomed late, some for the beauty of their fall foliage, some for the colour of their bark and others for the fruit.  Some spireas and the forsythia bloom early.  The red bark of the dogwood makes a bit of colour all winter, and the red berries of the barberry cling to the shrub well into the winter.  This list of shrubs which Philip has made out will be a help to you in this work.

PHILIP’S SHRUB TABLE
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COMMON NAME   BOTANICAL NAME    HEIGHT    COLOUR   SPECIAL POINTS
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March
Spice Bush   Benzoin          6-15 ft.    Yellow  Flowers appear
odoriferum                          before leaves. 
Crimson fruit
in fall.  Aromatic
odour. 
Daphne       Daphne
Mezereum           4 ft.     Purple  The only hardy deciduous
daphne.  Plant in
light soil and in
shade.
April
Barberry     Berberis-         2-4 ft.    Yellow   Prefers dry soil.  Berries
Thunbergii_                          all winter.

Golden Bell Forsythia 5-8 ft.  Yellow Flowers appear before
             suspensa leaves.  Hardy; free
                                                    from insects.