l62 



LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



Winter Color^ 

 Bark, and 

 Fruit 



Color of 

 Flower 



Practical 

 Difficulties of 

 Design in 

 Flower Color 



vermilion of the other maples, the purple of the red and scarlet oak, and 

 finally to the brown and buff of the persistent leaves of the white oak 

 and beech. 



Even when their foliage is gone, the color possibilities of deciduous 

 plants are not at an end. There are many rich and velvety textures of 

 gray and brown and purple in the twigs in a mass of shrubbery, or in a 

 more distant grove of trees. Properly grouped, properly set off, the 

 grayish yellow of Lombardy poplar, the deep black-brown of Japanese 

 barberry, are surprisingly vivid and well worth attention in composition, 

 and not least of such colors are the yellows and browns of open grass- 

 land and marsh. Besides these colors we have the more exotic effect of 

 shrubs with brilliant red and yellow bark. In the planting more closely 

 about our houses such shrubs give a bright color when such colors in 

 plants are few, and add a warmth and interest to leafless plantations. 

 Their value lies, however, largely in their contrast with their surround- 

 ings, and it is possible to spoil this effect by too wide-spread planting 

 of such material. 



The brilliant berries which are borne by shrubs like winterberry, 

 high-bush cranberry, Japanese barberry give a pleasant touch of color 

 after the leaves have fallen, although only in the case of a few shrubs 

 do the berries persist throughout the winter. This color is rarely so 

 intense in large masses as to be a dominant feature in the scene, and 

 usually the various berry-bearing shrubs are used no more for their 

 color than for the general interest they give to the design and for their 

 value in attracting birds. 



In flowering shrubs and particularly in flowering herbaceous plants, 

 the landscape designer has his greatest opportunity in the use of color. 

 In these materials he finds as wide a color range as the painter has ; 

 indeed in some ways a wider range, for he may use on the one hand a 

 pure white lily or a crimson cardinal flower or a flame azalea in 

 sunshine, and on the other the deep blue larkspur or monkshood in 

 heavy shade. 



Unlike the painter, the landscape architect usually cannot look at 

 the colors which he is to use before he puts them into his picture, and 

 rearrange or modify them as his sense of color harmony dictates. He 

 must order his plants from a nursery or raise them from seed with no 



