All can be trimmed two or three times each summer to produce almost privet-like solidity or, after a single cut in June-July, will bear short branchlets that produce attractive red flowers in early summer. Several olearias are also very salt-tolerant, but many were cut down during a recent cold winter in gardens where they had grown for many years. They are probably worth planting again in the mildest seaside gardens. Olearia macrodonta, with rather dull green, holly-shaped leaves, and 0. solandri, with golden leaves not unlike those of a coarse heather, can be trained into reasonably neat hedges that grow to 8ft(2.5m) or more in height. For sheltering the very mildest corners O. traversii is as quick-growing as any shrub. Unfortunately, it outgrows its roots and to produce a good shelter it is necessary to cut back the branches by at least a third at the end of the first two or three summers. This reduces the top hamper and allows the roots to become firm before the full growth is exposed to the force of the autumn and winter gales. Griselinia littoralis has lovely pale green shapely leaves that resist most winds and, in due course, grows to 3oft(9m) or more if left untrimmed. It can be trained to make formal hedges, but, like some of the other New Zealanders, it recently suffered badly in a series of sharp frosts after a very mild autumn. The various forms of Fuchsia magellanica make graceful informal hedges with masses of red flowers through the late summer and into the autumn, but only in the mildest districts. They survive and behave as perennials elsewhere and thus can only be used as dwarf, untrimmed hedges in such gardens. Almost any other shrub or small tree can be planted in lines to form partially pruned or completely informal screens, Local gardens, public parks and nursery gardens can be useful sources of information about the behaviour of plants in the locality and the adventurous gardener may wish to try something quite out of the ordinary after seeing some particularly vigorous shrub doing well in a similar situation to that of his own garden. At Wisley there is an interesting and varied collection of specimen hedges which is of great value in selecting the right subjects for a particular location or purpose.Long ago, in the late 16th century, when numerous plants new to gardening in this country were being introduced from the Middle East, the Cape and North and South America, the principal enjoyment to gardeners was the growing of all sorts of plants in mixture. Bulbs and other herbaceous plants, annuals and shrubs, fruits and herbs were accorded equal status. As the fashion of garden designing took ever greater importance in the minds of the great, the powerful and the rich, the plants were relegated to what became the kitchen garden.