PLANTING DESIGN i6i 



In large-scale design, color may be used, within reasonable limits, to Foliage Color 

 enhance the effects of aerial perspective and to give to the more distant ^ ^"''5^ 

 foliage a still greater effect of distance. For this result, plants of a 

 deeper or warmer green would be placed nearer the observer ; and from 

 these the color might range through various tones to distant foliage of a 

 light and bluish hue. 



Where there is no necessity for similarity with the foliage natural Useof'Col- 

 to the region, where the design is avowedly man-made, the brilliant and °''^'^ ' fol^<^S' 

 somewhat abnormal appearance of the purples and reds and yellows of 

 so-called "colored" foliage may be desirable. These brilliant colors 

 however are usually best given value and effect, as the colors of flowers 

 are, by being set off against more usual and restful shades. Colored 

 foliage, then, is likely to be best used either in beds enframed and backed, 

 or as individual specimens strongly marking a definite point, or as a 

 culminating spot of color giving a final sparkle to a mass of similar but 

 more subdued hues. Colored foliage in herbaceous plants is sometimes 

 desirable on account of the definiteness of the shapes which can be made 

 from it, and the length of time for which it can be depended on to give 

 its effect. Some varieties of it, however, are undesirable, for their 

 color comes as near to being of itself unpleasing, as it is possible for 

 any color to be. 



In our autumn, in regions of deciduous trees, the palette of color Autumn 

 in the hands of the landscape designer is one of almost the maximum of ^°^'^'^S,' 

 brilliance, and he need not hold his hand from the most gorgeous effects 

 which his imagination can conceive, because such effects are natural 

 and common in the whole landscape. Even here, however, the greatest 

 effect of brilliance is given by some contrast with a soberer hue : the 

 red maple in the autumn is the more striking for the green of the 

 surrounding swamp oak and alder; the clear gold of a black birch is at 

 its best against the deep green of a pine wood. In general it is well so 

 to arrange the trees and shrubs that the most glowing autumnal colors 

 shall be enframed and made the most of, each as the heart of its own 

 composition ; and as the season proceeds and different trees in turn 

 take on their brilliant color and their importance in the scene, these 

 dominant spots of color may change from the scarlet of the first red 

 maple through the pure yellow of the birches to the ruby, orange, and 



