16 MY GARDEN 



sweeps and patches and trails and spires of delightful 

 colour in happy agreement and certainly there is no 

 more enthralling pursuit than the handling of these 

 floral pigments. It is not nearly so difficult as it sounds, 

 for few flower colours are really fiercely opposed to one 

 another, and none are bad if given the companion neces- 

 sary to bring out their best qualities. Of course the 

 colour sense is individual, and what appeals to one may 

 not to another and so, after all, one can but express one's 

 own feelings. 



To me, strong contrasts in the garden are seldom 

 happy; plants having the same strength of colour are 

 best kept out of each other's company, or the resulting 

 effect will be crude and hard. The yellow of Coreopsis 

 and the deep blue of such a Delphinium as King is, to 

 my colour sense, both glaring and unpleasant; but 

 the soft yellow of California Poppies and the blue of 

 Veronica spicata is agreeable. Just so, opaque white 

 flowers are not pleasing in close proximity to strong red 

 or blue flowers but should have an admixture of soften- 

 ing foliage or some intermediate shade. Many flowers, 

 quite strong in colour, are, as one might say, tender in 

 their strength, a sort of bloom seems to lie upon them 

 there, more as an intangible impression than in fact. 

 This is true of many blue flowers, some of the Delphin- 

 iums, Monkshoods, and Chinese Bellflowers in par- 

 ticular, and this quality makes it possible, though I can- 

 not explain why, to place them happily with flowers of 



