THE GARDEN OF A YEAR 139 



we do not already begin to detect this tendency 

 in some of the so-called florist's flowers. 



Colour, form, sweetness how richly are all these 

 given us to enjoy in the plants that fulfil the 

 whole round of destiny in a season ! This very 

 wealth, however, strikes a note of warning. Taken 

 by themselves as colours, the yellows are often 

 too strong, the blues too metallic in their bril- 

 liancy, the reds crude and out of harmony with 

 each other. How can we expect it to be otherwise 

 with plants brought together from all points of the 

 compass. The skill of the gardener consists as 

 much in being able to choose out of this inexhaust- 

 ible store the right materials for artistic grouping 

 as in the cultivation of the plants themselves. We 

 are gradually becoming more and more aware that 

 a colour scheme is indispensable if we would attain 

 to the most beautiful and pictorial effects. Tender 

 shades of colour of the earlier summer months 

 the roses and pinks of Shirley poppies toning off 

 to white, the pale blues of Nigella and Nemophila, 

 the cream and citron of the less brilliant forms of 

 nasturtium, the buff and pink and mauve of ten- 

 week stocks these do not clash. It is generally 

 later in the year, when we get to the deeper tints 

 of high summer and autumn, that the contrasts 

 of strong harsh colours coming together into too 

 close neighbourhood are apt, like some sharp acid, 

 to set the teeth on edge. It is not that we under- 

 value rich and brilliant colouring ; a garden with- 

 out it would be sadly tame and wanting. Even 

 the decried magenta a name, for fashion's sake, 

 tacked on, nowadays, to many a fine hue of crimson 



