The Livable House 



coarse leaves of the trees, the showy flowers of the hydrangeas, and 

 the evergreens have a luxuriant effect which is especially appro- 

 priate with the stucco, Italian house. 



There are certain sorts of flower plantings which come under 

 no general head, and are pleasures to the eye, others which are 

 just messy and purposeless. Of the first, one of the most pleasing 

 kinds is spring bulbs naturalized in grass. Nothing is lovelier 

 than narcissus and Virginia cowslip blooming in stretches of 

 white and blue — or the little grape hyacinth flashing its blue near 

 the yellow dandelion which flowers at the same time — or masses 

 of purple hyacinths and golden daffodils. 



Other flowers, for the most part native ones, are good natural- 

 ized in bold groups, or planted in, here and there with shrubbery. 

 For the latter kind of planting, flowers which are woodland in 

 character or strong growing flowers are best: foxgloves, colum- 

 bines, echinops — the showy orange helenium, asters, boltonia, 

 monkshood — are all more or less colorful in a border of shrubs, 

 for they flower in sufficient masses to make themselves felt. 



But most flowers should be collected into a flower garden, 

 however small it may be, rather than be scattered about in promis- 

 cuous beds and borders. They count for more arranged together 

 in this way because it is possible to get bigger stretches of color 

 at once. The flowers can be cared for more easily and profitably, 

 and the chances are they leave the rest of the place looking tidier 

 and less cluttered. A wavy border of perennials following the 

 outlines of a shrub border is rarely a success, for the flower bor- 

 ders are seldom wide enough to count, and they succeed only in 



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