GARDENS NEAR THE SEA 



that of the rose, its colors are soft and very delicate. 

 The two plants, however, are not long in bloom 

 at the same time, the peony acting as a forerunner of 

 the rose. 



The various forms of standard azaleas are almost 

 as beautiful as tree roses and peonies. They are 

 fairly hardy and very lovely for formal effects in early 

 spring. 



The rose of Sharon is also much seen in tree form. 

 In one large seaside garden, I noticed many such 

 standards showing the blue flowers that are among 

 recent novelties. They did not appeal to me as 

 especially pretty > perhaps because the garden was 

 very large and somewhat heterogeneously planted. 

 The colors were wild and flamboyant where I first 

 saw the blue rose of Sharon. Nevertheless, I can 

 imagine them in a garden where blue coloring pre- 

 vailed and where the sea and the skyline were not 

 lost sight of in high, scraggly growth. But blue seems 

 as strange to the roses of Sharon as it does to the 

 hydrangeas, and I cannot think it an improvement 

 on the spotless white or the warm rose tints that nature 

 gave these flowers. 



Among the snowballs, there are varieties grown in 

 standard form which appear very beautiful when 

 laden with their heavy heads of flowers. In fact, 

 the rounded grace of these flower heads takes away 

 from the rather stilted look of the shrub when grown 

 as a standard, and makes it particularly pleasing for 

 many formal effects. In a certain garden unusually 

 near the sea are three standard snowballs which have 



[98] 



