Flowers 123 



I have ever seen followed the bank of a tiny brooklet, as it mean- 

 dered across a meadow which lay at the foot of a gentle slope, 

 whereon dwelt some splendid beeches. Here Nature and Art 

 combined and from early, tender, spring until the lusty autumn, 

 color succeeded color in the magic broidery that fringed the little 

 stream, and divided the pleasaunce from a hay field beyond. 



Only the native plants and " weeds ' ' had found lodgment there, 

 and it was wild in the best sense of the word. One thing or 

 another dominated it at different times during the season, but 

 there was never an unbroken line of bloom the entire length of it. 

 Early in the summer fugitive clumps of iris, bearing a scattered 

 dozen blossoms, broadened suddenly here and there into great 

 masses which presented a marvel of almost soUd blue. Between 

 these masses, however, the blue gave way to long stretches of 

 vari-colored green, where no blossoms were. 



Later, marsh mallows spread their pink loveliness like rosy 

 clouds, at intervals; daisies flourished in dazzling whiteness, and 

 elder and the meadow sweet ; then came goldenrod, and white and 

 purple wild aster. Each fortnight or month brought its domi- 

 nant note ; but always there were quantities of green and plenty of 

 white, so nothing ever clashed though each strong color held over 

 until its successor was well established. And the whole length 

 of this " border ' ' — several htmdred feet — was always a treat for 

 even the weariest eyes, or head, or heart, every day, all summer. 



Here then is one of the fiindamental secrets — if secrets they 

 be — of planting a border, or, speaking more broadly, of planting 

 flowers. Let there be a succession of dominance, not merely a 

 succession of bloom. Let one color, in different shades, be 

 repeated, here in a mass, there in a few fugitive blossoms, 

 throughout the whole. By this I do not mean that other colors 

 are to be excluded, by any means — but everything should be 



