Heritage Museums and Gardens Showcase a Shrubbery

On a recent trip to Heritage Museums and Gardens on Cape Cod in the town of Sandwich, Massachusetts I noticed in the garden a row of heavily pruned evergreens.

What came to my mind was the idea of a shrubbery, in this case,  referred to as a collection of well-clipped shrubs.

In the book Keywords in American Landscape Design we read “By the 1840s, shrubbery had developed as a distinct garden feature defined by graduated, intermixed vegetation; placement along walks, roads, flower gardens, and lawns.”

This example of shrubbery on the lawn fits that definition.

These shrubs at Heritage offer a display on the lawn.

The lawn certainly is highlighted, but the evergreens stand out as well in their well clipped style as a year-round effect.

In the English garden shrubbery is distinguished from the flower garden and the pleasure ground.

When we group shrubs together in a pleasing design like this at Heritage, we create such a shrubbery.

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