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Evergreens
In planning the outdoor living room for the modest purse, the outlay for evergreens must be small. As plants go, they are by far the most costly for their size. The reason for this is that they take many more years to develop and require much more expensive handling than shrubs.
Coniferous evergreens of planting size are dug in the nursery with a ball of earth around their roots. This ball is tied or sewed in burlap to keep it intact and to keep the earth from drying out. When the roots of a coniferous evergreen become thoroughly dry, the plant will usually die. Size and variety have a great deal to do with the cost of evergreens. Some propagate and grow very quickly; these are always the least expensive but often most desirable for backgrounds and quick growing screens. Others are much more difficult to establish and take many more years of growth to become suitable specimens. In the end they are so truly beautiful and serve so well in providing a beautiful color or fabric in our decorative scheme that they are well worth the cost. In selecting evergreens, it is desirable to purchase well-developed specimens rather than the very young, undeveloped plants. The planting effect will be much better, and, after all, the outdoor living room is not the place to establish a nursery. When we are picking out evergreens from a nursery, they should be selected according to variety and ultimate growth not just according to their shape and color. The tree of our fancy may be dwarf or have propensity to become a forest tree -- important qualities that are unapparent to the amateur.
Plants for Decoration
A whole summer and fall season with color galore in your outdoor living room is possible with a few inexpensive packets of annual flower seed but the most satisfactory decorative scheme is to include hardy flowers and bulbs of various sorts in the planting scheme. One can obtain hardy perennials by growing them from seed or buying the plants from a nursery. If one is a good gardener by experience or instinct and wants to putter around with seed boxes and beds and transplanting and has the space to do it, then one can raise his own flowers with the loving care one would give his family, and know the joys (and sometimes the grief) of a family of plant children. But if one is not so inclined, it is best to buy the plants from a reliable grower. Plants of ordinary perennials, which are easily propagated, are quite inexpensive. It is on the specialties and new introductions where money may be lavished. But, after all, the flower garden is the place to try out specialties and new introductions. Plants used in the outdoor living room should be of proven merit and have good qualities of both foliage and flower. As a rule, vigorous, young plants are better to buy and set out than old, seasoned clumps.