PLANTING ,277 



endeavour to soften them. Our plants will 

 do that for us if only we allow them. 



3. It is only by making ourselves acquainted 

 with the flowering period of our plants that 

 we can be sure that those we bring together 

 for the purpose of constructing a contrast or 

 colour harmony will be in bloom at the same 

 time. Not only should they start approxi- 

 mately simultaneously, but their periods of 

 bloom should, as far as possible, coincide in 

 length, because the effect will be measured in 

 duration by the period of the flower which 

 lasts the shortest time. By judicious selection 

 it is possible to contrive that there shall be few 

 failures from this source. 



4. Succession is the very keynote of good 

 gardening, for we cannot afford to shorten 

 the period during which flowers are possible, 

 nor can we tolerate empty spaces in our borders. 

 By consulting a seedsman's list the garden 

 maker may select his plants and so dispose 

 them that, as the spring-blooming kinds fail, 

 others will succeed for the summer months 

 to be followed in their turn by the autumn- 

 blooming kinds. This system of succession, 

 well arranged, will give us flowers from Febru- 



