VARIETY IN SPRING FL0\\T:RS 15 



Why cannot anyone who has ground which rises and who 

 wants something beautiful to see in spring, — something freshly 

 beautiful, I mean, — why cannot anyone make such a little- 

 garden picture as this? The sundial is not a necessity at first 

 but it adds great beauty to the picture — that, or a well-pro- 

 portioned bird-bath. The walk might be three feet wide, en- 

 larging at the sundial's place to a six-foot square. Brick is not 

 essential. If one lives in a region where flat stone is easily 

 brought in, this is as fine if not finer than brick. A flagged walk, 

 laid of uneven stones, gives a look of age and use always wel- 

 come to the discerning eye. The border might be a bit more than 

 two feet wide; then I should surely set in, among the tulips and 

 early spring flowers, a few roots of Iris germanica, and colum- 

 bines of good kinds. Try Mrs. Scott Elliott's hybrids, growing 

 them from seed the year before. Unless you know these you do 

 not know the columbine in its present beauty of form and color. 



Next let us discuss a little informal border against a fence or 

 along a hedge, to give bloom for, say, three weeks of spring: a 

 border four feet wide and twenty feet long. And first, after 

 digging deep and preparing well that border (but no fresh 

 manure in it), I should move a few good peonies in September 

 to a permanent place there, spacing these regularly in a long 

 line four feet apart. Never plant bulbs around a peony which 

 stands alone; the result is nothing but a spot of color, meaning- 

 less, ugly. There is however no prettier place for them than 

 around the up-coming stems of peonies in the spring border, 

 and as the leaves of bulbs brown and wither, the fresh green 

 foliage of the peony claims attention and the fading beneath is 

 forgotten. 



First in this border is a scattering of crocus bulbs everywhere: 

 Mikado, striped like dimity; Kathleen Parlow, a waxen white; 

 purpurea grandiflora, rich violet; Largest Golden Yellow. Keep 



