COLOR IN THE FLOWER GARDEN 181 



miration for the hardy phlox is kindled afresh with the usual 

 spring appearance of such a list as that of the Scotchman, John 

 Forbes, whose pages glow with no less than 350 varieties of this 

 glorious flower. For a garden of phloxes I have pled before 

 this day, a garden begun with the low growing varieties or creep- 

 ing phloxes; continued by the native Phlox divaricata, and its 

 newer variety Laphanii, carried through a June fortnight by some 

 annual of harmonious or delicate tone till Miss Lingard arrives; 

 the lady ushers in the whole superb company of early, medium, and 

 late phloxes. 



I have always wished to see Miss Kneeland's celebrated phlox 

 garden at Lenox, where I understand the August phloxes are 

 grown lavishly but in mixture; a plan which greatly stimulates 

 my curiosity. 



It is impossible for me to leave this topic without an added 

 reference to verbena Beauty of Oxford; no new variety by any 

 means, but so lovely in masses below or near phlox Pantheon that 

 it must have a word; indeed its place cannot be taken by another 

 annual or perennial that I know. Its color is so excellent, a warm 

 pink, its bloom so extravagant, its branches so obedient to the 

 verbena pin, or so upright when left unconfined. 



September brings a cloud of lovely lavender bloom with its 

 closing days, and nothing can I recommend more heartily than 

 gladiolus America grown in loose groups of from twelve to twenty- 

 five below the delicate gauze bloom of such hardy asters as Pul- 

 cherrima and Coombe Fishacre, with Madonna, a fine pinkish 

 lavender, back of these lower ones; and Lady Augusta Trevelyan, 

 one of the very earliest, a charming white-flowered variety four 

 feet tall, somewhere beyond. There is an echo of the flowers of 

 May in this September bloom; the lilacs and pink tulips repeated 

 here in fainter tones of lavender daisy, and paler pink of gladiolus, 

 fainter and paler as befits the dying summer. 



A very beautiful lavender-blue hardy aster is James Ganly; 

 indeed to me the very loveliest of them all; about three feet in 

 height, but of a remarkably good color, much bluer than most 

 of the tribe. Do, if you can, plant these charming things against 

 a tall clipped hedge or against dark leaved trees or shrubs; their 

 beauties will be enhanced a thousand fold. There is a range of 



