1.   Occasionally the skeleton of a leafless flame tree towered above smaller shrubs.

2.   Unlike in trials with large bushes, mistakes in experimenting with smaller shrubs do not leave big, ugly spaces in borders.

3.   With that success, I decided to explore the delights of smaller shrubs, bushes two to four feet tall.

4.   In my own garden, I have long-standing shrubs of blue and white common lilac, but my favorite is a smaller shrub known as Persian lilac.