272 Old Time Gardens 



as Blue-eyed Grass, or Innocence, or Scilla, and the 

 whole plant regarded closely by itself isn't at all bad ; 

 but whenever and wherever you find it growing in 

 a garden, you never want it in that place, and you 

 shift it here and there. I am convinced that the 

 Lobelia is simply impossible ; it is an alien, wrong in 

 some subtle way in tint, in habit of growth, in time 

 of blooming. The last time I noted it in any large 

 garden planting, it was set around the roots of some 

 standard Rose bushes ; and the gardener had dis- 

 played some thought about it; it was only at the 

 base of white or cream-yellow Roses ; but it still 

 was objectionable. I think I would exterminate 

 Lobelia if I could, banish it and forget it. In the 

 minds of many would linger a memory of certain 

 ornate garden vases, each crowded with a Pandanus-y 

 plant, a pink Begonia, a scarlet double Geranium, a 

 purple Verbena or a crimson Petunia, all gracefully 

 entwined with Nasturtiums and Lobelia — while 

 these folks lived, the Lobelia would not be for- 

 gotten. 



You will have some curious experiences with your 

 Blue Border ; kindly friends, pleased with its beauty 

 or novelty, will send to you plants and seeds to add 

 to its variety of form ''another bright blue flower." 

 You will usually find you have added variety of tint 

 as well, ranging into crimson and deep purple, for 

 color blindness is far more general than is thought. 



The loveliest blue flowers are the wild ones of 

 fields and meadows ; therefore the poor, says Al- 

 phonse Karr, with these and the blue of the sky 

 have the best and the most of all blueness. Yet 



