204 GARDENS PAST AND PRESENT 



we find ourselves still saying "It is coming," and 

 we are gliding imperceptibly into summer. Before 

 we know it we have arrived at the parting of the 

 ways. Listen ! does not the happy hum of life 

 resound in the air, like the distant fanfare of trum- 

 pets, proclaiming the coronation of a new queen of 

 flowers ? 



MIDSUMMER GLORY 



APPLE blossom is letting fall its fading pink and 

 white; lilac and the "streaming gold" of labur- 

 num are passing by ; hawthorns, with their crim- 

 son and pink and pearl a little tarnished, are 

 beginning to set to work on more serious business. 

 Spring has emptied her treasures on the earth. 

 It seems peculiarly fitting that the gorgeous 

 oriental poppies should usher in the fulness of 

 summer when, towards the end of May, they burst 

 into their magnificence of deep scarlet and orange. 

 Herbaceous borders, which should be the pride 

 of all gardens in June, are then becoming every 

 day more rich in colour. 



There are many modes for the effective arrange- 

 ment of herbaceous plants. Sometimes they are 

 grouped in beds tall-growing delphiniums in one, 

 Chinese pasonies by themselves in another, chim- 

 ney campanulas in a third and with plants which 

 remain in bloom for a considerable time, and under 

 certain conditions of unlimited space and limited 

 requirements, such a scheme has its merits. It 

 may be said to belong rather to the garden which 

 is left in the hands of the professional gardener, 



