22 NOVEMBER 1946, Page 17

In My Garden

It is often asked which flowering bushes are best for a very small garden. I would claim a special place for Berberis Wilsonae, if only for its mass of red berries which—in my experience—the birds wholly neglect. The whole tribe of barberries is perhaps less popular than it should be, though the purple-leaved Thunbergia, it is said, far exceeds all other shrubs in popularity in the United States. They make the most beautiful of all hedges by reason of their berries, though the two sorts especially recommended in the books, Darwinii and its cousin Stenophylla, carry dark berries. A barberry hedge has the advantage of avoiding the stiff hard lines almost necessary to the yew, and the roots are not greedy like yew roots, which will rob any bed of the proper fertility. For charm of habit, none is more pleasing than Henrii. A hedge should be a thing of beauty in itself, not only a screen or background; and the barberries are

at their best when flowers are at their worst. W. BEACH THOMAS.