30 VARIETY IN THE LITTLE GARDEN 



and here are the reasons: bulbs, to use Mr. Wemmick's time- 

 honored phrase, are "portable property." They can be lifted, 

 stored in a small space, and carried to the next abode if people 

 must move. Annuals cost only for the seeds, and very early may 

 be counted upon to cover the drying leaves of tulip and daffodil. 

 Miss Jekyll somewhere suggests that bulbs and annuals in a 

 long narrow border be planted in long shaped drifts, alternating 

 with each other; that, for blue or bluish flowers to use in such 

 places, Didiscus asperula azurea, Nigella anagallis, Convolvulus 

 minor be the subjects; for white, Argemone, Jacobea, annual 

 Gypsophila, and the white annual flax, Linaria; for yellows, 

 dwarf nasturtiums and Eschscholtzias; and for pinks and reds, 

 Saponaria as well as poppies in variety. Some of these things 

 are hardly known to us; yet seed can be obtained, and in parts 

 of our country they will surely reward the daring gardener 

 who is not afraid of the unknown. 



To this list I should always add annual larkspur, especially in 

 lavenders and purples. This would look well among any or all 

 of these annual plants. I sometimes think that a border of 

 scarlet and lavender annuals would be an entrancing experi- 

 ment: scarlet poppies with lavender- violet colors, to be suc- 

 ceeded by a good Ageratum, the poppies to be followed by some 

 one of the best varieties of scarlet annual salvia, among which 

 successive sowings of lavender and violet larkspurs and possibly 

 a touch in the foreground of scarlet geranium would look ex- 

 tremely well. To relieve the level of height in all these, an early 

 lavender sweet pea, such as Wedgewood, or a few hardy asters, 

 judiciously placed, would add great interest to an uncommon 

 color arrangement. 



While I have never tried this plan that occurs to me just now, 

 it should take no coiu-age at all to undertake it. The only peren- 

 nial is the hardy aster, and the only plant which must be bought, 



