For partial enclosure there may be a fence, wall, or hedge part way round a garden, the rest of the space filled by shrub and tree borders. Or only the main entrance into the garden and the far corners may be emphasized by flanking groups of shrubs and evergreens, and large sections of the sides left open. If there is a terminal feature, it must be backed up by substantial planting lest the observer look right on past it. With even partial enclosure, attention can be directed to the garden itself and held there. (Plate 26.)

Planting groups used for partial enclosure should be in teresting in themselves, and remain in scale for a long time. For example, the flanking groups of the main entrance should be of rich material and slow-growing as hybrid rhododen drons, yews, or other broad-leaved evergreens. Otherwise plant the nicest shrubs you can find, cotoneasters, Viburnum carlesi, or the new hybrid-flowering quinces rather than spi rea and mockorange, and other rangy, less finished plants. A columnar evergreen in the center of the group, say a cedar or arborvitae, will act as an accent, or to soften the effect if there is room, a flowering cherry, pink dogwood, or flowering crab apple may strike the right note. The groups used at the far end corners of the composition may be similar to those at the entrance, but they should be a bit larger in scale, more free, and not quite so finished. Background groups, to set off the terminal or other feature, of course, should be dense and heavy enough to complement adequately the feature, what ever it may be.

Frequently it is desirable to use hedges to extend both the entrance groups, the corner plantings, and the background planting into a partial or complete frame for the garden. Then one end of the hedge is embedded in the shrub group, the other stopped by a pointed evergreen or turned back on itself like a Greek volute, or left sharply clipped on either side of a side entrance to the garden. Such hedges must be of mate rial in keeping with the groups to which they are attached.

Yew, privet, evergreen barberry and hemlock are good for this purpose. They should always be clipped to give them definiteness and to accent the shape of the garden pattern they enclose.

Specimen Plants

There is another somewhat related problem that confronts the designer. That is specimens. There are quite a few plants, beautiful as individuals, which lose much of their quality when planted in a thick group or border, especially if mixed with other sorts.