THE WELL-CONSIDERED GARDEN 



lilaceous things in all their splendor of palest 

 pinks and blues, and at the next, if no buds remain 

 upon the stalk to prove the freshness of the other 

 flowers, here are two to four slender trumpets, 

 brown and hanging. But, oh, the beauty of this 

 flower for August in association with pink and 

 white and lavender flowers and with the cloudy 

 sea-lavender's rounded wave ! 



One reason, I think, for the less general use of 

 Lycoris in our gardens is the probably common 

 disappointment at its failure to bloom at once. 

 Two to three years in my experience it takes to 

 establish itself so as to flower freely, and after the 

 third year the spikes are more and more in num- 

 ber. A second reason for the seeming failure of 

 the flower is surely neglect to mark its growing 

 place while the spring foliage is still green. These 

 leaves disappear utterly in July. There is then an 

 interim during which it is all too easy for the im- 

 pulsive or careless gardener to cultivate that bare 

 spot or to plant something on it; the least touch 

 of the trowel or fork being sufficient to behead the 

 flower-stalk then forming below the surface of the 

 ground. 



This year we made a serious mistake in cutting 

 to the ground a mass of weedy Achillea, the 

 208 



