COLOR IN THE FLOWER GARDEN 177 



blue delphiniums are over). Blue delphiniums, blue salvia, 

 (August and September) purple clematis, single petunia, violas, 

 purple sweet peas, salpiglossis, stocks, blue nemesia, blue branch- 

 ing annual delphiniums, purple perennial phloxes, purple gladiolus. 

 What more lovely than a small garden of all the range of yel- 

 lows and of orange tempered by cream -white blooms. x\ll these I 

 repeat should be small, averting the possibility of monotony. 



May I come now from generalization to detail, and will you 

 permit me to relate a few of my own gardening attempts? And 

 first, a word of explanation. It will doubtless have occurred to 

 you already that I am, as one might say, a self-made gardener. I 

 have seen few of the great gardens of this country; a few more 

 perhaps of those of England and France; my gardening sense has 

 been fostered only by life in a suburb or in a small town, stimu- 

 lated mainly by reading and experiment. " Thank Goodness " 

 exclaims one lively writer, "that gardening is not an exact science." 

 " Thank Goodness," say I with all fervor or I should never have 

 persisted in it. Some of my tryings-out have given me such 

 sensations of pleasure that with your permission, I will mention 

 one of my own color-groupings of flowers for each month of a 

 season beginning with April, ending with October. 



An April blossoming which for several years has been the source 

 of much pleasure to my eye is a composition of blue and purple 

 thus obtained. Sheets of Scilla sibirica planted near and really 

 running into thick colonies of Crocus purpureus grandifiora ; rich 

 true blue against rich true purple provides a sight in flower carpet- 

 ing not so often seen in gardens, yet doubtless blooming, budding, 

 and fading unseen on many an Alpine slope. Add to these strong 

 colors, as for April variety I have once done, touches of the intense 

 violet of Iris reticulata and the delicate pink of hepatica, and the 

 April bouquet is interesting indeed. 



In May, what color combinations with the lilac and the tulip! 

 The marvels which the great and lamented Victor Lemoine has 

 given us in the world of lilacs provide a delicately sumptuous back- 

 ground for all those May-flowering tulips which contain no hint 

 of scarlet or of orange. I think I may safely say that any Darwin 

 or Cottage tulip with those exceptions would be excellent if asso- 

 ciated with such lilacs as Mme. Abel Chatenay, Charles X, Presi- 



