The tendency to regard plants as specimens rather than as a part of a larger picture is noticeable in our treatment of trees and outstanding shrubs. Many gardeners space them far apart and constantly prune, or even shift them about to pre vent them from growing together into a mass, whose texture and line would be interesting. Such a procedure is advisable in an arboretum, a nursery, or a display ground but rarely in a garden. Here the idea is to employ massive plants to frame, enclose, shut out views, and to strengthen smaller, more inti mate pictures. Only a few specimen plants can be accommo dated in one garden and these must be outstanding.

Mass is a powerful means of building up to climaxes, heightening interest around terminal and other focal points, and relieving monotony or flatness. Mass plantings should be used whenever possible but always in scale with the garden scheme. Very small gardens must have smaller, lower masses so as not to appear dwarfed; larger, more open developments must have bolder masses. This precludes the use of narrow shrub borders for enclosure, or of a great many specimen shrubs and trees.

Texture and color have a bearing on mass. Strong color like purple-plum, the heavy color of some evergreens, or coarse-textured plants appear more massive than other plants.

Line and Form

In garden designing, especially at the paper and pencil stage, pattern is important. Beginning with that imaginary center line or axis, strive to develop an attractive pattern, made up at this stage entirely of lines. The formal design stresses straight lines, right angles, and segments of circles; the informal or naturalistic depends on long flowing curves.

Too often, when it is time to select plants to carry out the de sign, the pattern is forgotten. As a result a fine original effect is reduced, if not ruined. For example, in the small, simple, formal scheme the parallel lines of the beds along the central panel are the strongest feature. They give definiteness and lead the eye on towards the focal point. Yet often sprawly verbenas, petunias, or spreading moss-pinks are used for edg ing instead of low, compact ageratum and candytuft that keep their place, or can be sheared back to it after blooming. Tidy plants carry out design by holding the lines of the basic pat tern.

On a tour of small gardens, we noticed that those that seemed best designed and lingered longest in the mind had well-defined edges to the garden beds.