192 The Amateur's Book of the Dahlia 



pale corn -coloured, upright heads, and the show- 

 ering back petals touched with palest lavender. 

 Something was needed to blend the yellow with 

 the silver and looking through the window, St. 

 Egwin aster called to me. Just try that com- 

 bination. 



Copper jars, not too brightly polished, will 

 hold the autumn tints. " Use sumac and the 

 brown leaves of bracken, and the copper will 

 take up the reflection. Bronzed oak leaves 

 may be used with the more massive types, while 

 red-berried dogwood and the crimson shoots of 

 young Virginia Creeper do better for the more 

 delicate cactus varieties. Tall pampas grass will 

 lighten the effect with hybrid cactus. 



There is a grape which clambers over wall and 

 fences all about our place, from early spring 

 until the killing frost. It is indispensable to me 

 for house decorations. Some people call it 

 variegated vitis. In the early summer, the ten- 

 der shoots of palest pink, bearing tiny pink 

 leaves, rosy tendrils, and minute fragrant blos- 

 soms, add to the charm of every group of flowers. 

 During the hot weather the small deeply cut 

 leaves of dull gray, here and there touched with 

 pink or pale yellow, melt in with any flower I 

 choose; but its full glory comes in September 

 when its branches are laden with berries of 



