Although the above orders include a considerable number of our best shrubs, several plants must be specially mentioned. The Clematis is increased by seeds, cuttings, or layers in the case of the species, but unfortunately the garden forms are usually grafted on _C. Viticella_ or _C. Flammula_, whereas many can be propagated by cuttings, and practically all will root when layered.
[Illustration: _TULIP TREE AT RANELAGH (Winter)._]
In the absence of seeds the following genera must be propagated by layers, viz., _Aucuba_, _Chimonanthus_ (Winter Sweet), _Halesia_ (Snowdrop tree), _Hamamelis_ (Witch Hazel), _Hippophaë_ (Sea Buckthorn), and _Myrica_ (Candleberry Myrtle). Cuttings of the first will root readily enough, but never seem to succeed afterwards. The female form of _Hippophaë_ is best raised from layers, as seedlings usually give a large percentage of male plants. _Aralia_ and _Rhus_ (Sumach) are increased by seeds or root-cuttings; _Buddleia japonica_ is best raised from seeds, and the other Buddleias from cuttings; and practically all other hardy shrubs that have not been specially mentioned are easily propagated by seeds, cuttings, or layers, and the majority of them by all three methods.
If it is impossible to increase a tree or shrub by any other means than by the three methods mentioned, then resort to budding or grafting.
The budding spring, the ripening summer, the outpoured riches of harvest, appeal to all, physically if not spiritually. But to hundreds of people a winter landscape is dreary beyond expression. They never dream of going into a garden during the dark months; to them its silent lessons are but a dead-letter, nor would they ever wake to the beauty of bare boughs nor pause to note the strange glow of withered Fern fronds in the grey gloom of a foggy day. We are not wholly free from blame in this matter in so far as our gardens are concerned, for spring and summer and autumn all have their share in the garden plan, while winter, too often, stands apart uncared for and unclothed. Yet how much may be done by the right grouping of beautiful trees and shrubs to make the winter garden harmonious and inviting.
"You see, it takes a deal of insight to know what's a-going to be," was a remark, half-apologetic, half-regretful, often made by an old gardener of a school now gone by, when matters horticultural went somewhat athwart of his calculations. The words recur to mind as containing a germ of truth beyond the meaning of the speaker. It has been well said with regard to deeper matters that foresight must spring from insight, and it may be taken also as a foundation principle of good gardening. For just in proportion as we use our faculties of insight and foresight will our gardens grow, more or less, into a perfect expression of our sense of the ever-changeful, never-ending beauty of Nature.