BALANCE IN THE GARDEN 



of salmon-pinks and whites. We really had almost 

 everything but salmon-pink." 



The zinnias, I who saw them can affirm, made 

 a most brilliant mass of color not altogether har- 

 monious; but all was set right by the introduc- 

 tion, sparingly managed, of the lovely ageratum, 

 Dwarf Imperial Blue. The eye of her who ar- 

 ranged these flowers saw that a balm was needed 

 in Gilead; the ageratum certainly brought the 

 zinnia colors into harmony as nothing else could 

 have done, and a charmingly gay and original 

 decoration was the result. What a suggestion 

 here, too, for the planting of a little garden of 

 annuals ! 



We are apt to think of balance in the formal 

 garden as obtained for the most part by the use 

 of accents in the shape of formal trees, or by 

 some architectural adjunct. I believe that color 

 masses and plant forms should correspond as ab- 

 solutely as the more severe features of such a 

 garden. For example, in practically the same 

 spot in all four quarters of my garden there are, 

 for perhaps four to six weeks, similar masses 

 of tall white hardy phloxes, the blooming period 

 beginning with von Lassburg and closing with 

 Jeanne d'Arc, the white repeated in the dwarf 



71 



