Perennials for a Thought-out Garden 215 



where all should be peace. But planted in the foreground of a 

 copse, a mass of dwarf evergreens or a border of shrubbery not in 

 bloom, how glorious the great poppies are! Another special- 

 purpose plant is the cardinal flower, now tamed by the commercial 

 dealer who sells its easily grown seed. Pitifully out of place 

 among the host of garden flowers, its vivid beauty is best displayed 

 in nature's garden, where it rises beside a stream that reflects 

 it like a mirror. Here it gives one a keener prick of pleasure 

 than in any other setting. Association counts for much. Fox- 

 gloves are charming garden flowers, yet the best effect produced with 

 them that I ever saw was where a great group of their white spires 

 ascended in the foreground of a vista through deep woods. Some 

 stumps had been grubbed out, and the owner of the place had 

 sprinkled foxglove seeds from the garden, which he promptly 

 forgot. Two years later he happened upon them unexpectedly 

 and was overjoyed at the sight. What he called "a happy acci- 

 dent" was, of course, no accident at all, for unconsciously, perhaps, 

 the picture had flashed on his inner eye before he dropped a seed 

 into the earth. Lupines are especially effective when massed 

 apart in large groups in a setting of rich, dark green foliage. 

 Indeed, many lovely perennials that would not bear neglect 

 through naturalising, may be cultivated in a naturalistic way 

 where their effect is apt to be far more artistic than in a garden. 

 Everywhere perennials are the artist's flowers and are used 

 by him as colours are on a palette to make a picture. We have 

 been wont to mistake the daubs on the palette a lot of unassorted 

 colours set out in a meaningless way for the picture itself. 

 Flowers may be left to jar the nerves of the sensitive or so arranged 

 as to produce constantly changing visions of beauty. "It seems 

 to me," says Miss Jekyll, "that the duty we owe to our gardens 



