THE SUMMER GARDEN 115 



watered, do attempt to grow, seedsmen, gar- 

 deners, or weather are blamed, because the 

 crowded starvelings cannot be compared with 

 a neighbour's fine display. But when one sees 

 the superb effects produced by many of the 

 hardy, as well as half-hardy, annuals grown 

 under proper conditions namely, with care, 

 knowledge, and taste and so disposed that 

 when their short season is over something else 

 is ready to fill their place in the border, then 

 indeed one eagerly ponders how best to paint 

 one's garden with such glorious tints from 

 Nature's colour-box. 



- I well remember the advent of the exquisite 

 Shirley Poppy years ago. I first sowed them in 

 the old Warwickshire garden at Tachbrook ; 

 and how they revelled in that strong soil may 

 be seen in Miss Whitehead's charming picture 

 of the gateway into the walled garden. Here 

 they were the first annuals I sowed when my 

 borders were far from being as well filled as 

 they are now. I have never had to sow them 

 again, for the lovely flowers seed themselves 

 and come up year after year in undiminished 



