The Livable House 



The fewer the varieties of any color in a garden, the greater 

 are the pictorial effects obtainable, and a good plan to follow is 

 to pick out a succession of twos, which will be blooming at once, 

 and plant the garden all round with groups of these. For ex- 

 ample, a succession consisting of the following pairs: pink peonies 

 and blue anchusa, yellow coreopsis and the resplendent blue lark- 

 spur, purple spikes of veronica and pink phlox, lavender asters 

 and bronze dahlias, provides the garden with a series of color 

 combinations which should be very lovely from May until frost; 

 the overlapping of seasons — for of course some few flowers of 

 each group will come into bloom before the preceding group is 

 done, and the coreopsis and larkspur will flower more or less all 

 summer — will furnish the garden with a sufficient amount of va- 

 riety to offset the main mass of bloom. These combinations may 

 be varied infinitely: salmon pink oriental poppies with their silky 

 flapping leaves are lovely with the blue of Italian alkanet ; and the 

 prickly lavender balls of echinops are pretty with a deep salmon 

 phlox. 



White is always good, even in a garden which sets out to con- 

 fine itself to rigid color combinations; in fact, it may be used to 

 furnish the body or warp, so to speak, of the pattern ; white phlox, 

 or shasta daisies, or gypsophila, woven in all through a garden of 

 two contrasting colors adds a lightness to the whole picture which 

 is pleasing to the eye. 



In any arrangement of few varieties such as this, the same 

 groups should be repeated all along a border — or at intervals the 

 whole way round a garden — so that when peonies and anchusa 



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