286 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



greatest number of crudely contrasting colours. How often do we see 

 combinations of scarlet Geranium, Calceolaria, and blue Lobelia 

 three subjects that have excellent qualities as bedding plants if used 

 in separate colour schemes, but which in combination can hardly fail 

 to look bad? In this kind of gardening, as in any other, let us by all 

 means have our colours in a brilliant blaze, but never in a discordant 

 glare. One or two colours, used temperately and with careful judg- 

 ment, will produce nobler and richer results than many colours 

 purposely contrasted, or wantonly jumbled. The formal garden that 

 is an architectural adjunct to an imposing building demands a dignified 

 unity of colouring instead of the petty and frivolous effects so com- 

 monly obtained by the misuse of many colours. As practical examples 

 of simple harmonies, let us take a scheme of red for summer bedding. 

 It may range from palest pink to nearly black, the flowers being 

 Pelargoniums in many shades of pink, rose, salmon, and scarlet ; Ver- 

 benas, red and pink ; and judicious mixtures of Iresine, Alternanthera, 

 Amaranthus, the dark Ajuga, and red-foliaged Oxalis. Still finer is a 

 colour scheme of yellow and orange, worked out with some eight 

 varieties of Marigold, Zinnias, Calceolarias, and Nasturtiums a long 

 range of bright rich colour, from the palest buff and primrose to the 

 deepest mahogany. Such examples of strong warm colouring are ad- 

 mirably suited for large spaces of bedded garden. Where a small 

 space has to be dealt with it is better to have arrangements of blue, 

 with white and the palest yellow, or of purple and lilac, with gray 

 foliage. A satisfactory example of the latter could be worked out with 

 beds of purple and lilac Clematis, trained over a carpet of Cineraria 

 maritima, or one of the white-foliaged Centaureas, and Heliotropes and 

 purple Verbenas, with silvery foliage of Cerastium, Antennaria, or 

 Stachys lanata. These are some simple examples easily carried out. 

 The principle once seen and understood (and the operator having a 

 perception of colour), modifications will suggest themselves, and a 

 correct working with two or more colours will be practicable ; but the 

 simpler ways are the best, and will always give the noblest results. 

 There is a peculiar form of harmony to be got even in varied colours 

 by putting together those of nearly the same strength or depth. As 

 an example in spring bedding, Myosotis dissitiflora, Silene pendula 

 (not the deepest shade), and double yellow Primrose or yellow Poly- 

 anthus, though distinctly red, blue, and yellow, yet are of such tender 

 and equal depth of colouring, that they work together charmingly, 

 especially if they are further connected with the gray-white foliage of 

 Cerastium. G. J." 



