176 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



The form and color of flowers in my opinion, should be con- 

 sidered as seriously for the formal garden as the soil about their 

 roots. Effects with tall flowers, lilacs and delphiniums; with dwarf 

 flowers, hardy candytuft, for instance; with lace-like flowers the 

 heucheras, the gypsophilas; with round-trussed flowers, phloxes; 

 with massive-leaved flowers, the funkias or Crambe cordifolia; 

 with slender flowers, gladiolus, salpiglossis ; with low-spreading 

 flowers, statice, annual phloxes; with delicately branching flowers, 

 the annual larkspur; what an endless array in the matter of form 

 and habit! The trouble with most of us is that we try to get in all 

 the flowers, and also we often go so far as to insist on using all 

 the colors too, with a result usually terrific. 



On the other hand, according to a capital English writer, " the 

 present taste is a little too timid about mixtures and contrasts 

 of color. Few of those who advise upon the 'color arrangements 

 of flowers, seem to be aw^are that nearly all colors go well together 

 in a garden, if only they are thoroughly mixed up. It is the 

 half-hearted contrasts where only two or three colors are employed, 

 and those the wrong ones, that are really ugly. The Orientals 

 know more about color than we do, and in their coloring, they 

 imitate the audacity and profusion of nature." 



Those who lead us in these matters will I am sure gradually 

 and gently conduct us to an austerer taste, a wish for more sim- 

 plicity of effect in our gardens; the sure path, if the narrow one, 

 to beauty in gardening. 



The stream of my horticultural thought runs here a trifle broader, 

 and I see the charm of gardens of one color alone; these of course 

 with the varying tones of such a color and with the liberal or sparing 

 use of white flowers. It is I think a daughter of Du Maurier 

 whose English garden is one lovely riot the summer through of 

 mauve, purple, cool pink, and white. I can fancy nothing more 

 lovely if it receive the artist's touch. A garden of rich purples, 

 brilliant blues and their paler shades, with cream and white, 

 could be a masterpiece in the right hand. 



Such was last summer the garden at Ashridge, Lord Brown- 

 low's fine place in England, the following l)rief description of 

 which was sent me by the hand that planted it. " Purple and 

 blue beds at Ashridge (very difficult to get enough blue when tall 



