COLOUR IN MY GARDEN 



weeds these plants and bulbs will spread into great jewel- 

 like patches, and if the bank is so situated that the sun 

 shines through the gay twigs and stems upon the gayer 

 flowers casting their reflections upon the water, we shall 

 have a spring picture rare even at this season when all is 

 glorified. 



As the spring advances yellow flowers become even 

 more numerous. Tulips have sprung into being; Corydalis 

 lutea from chinks in the wall and C. cheilanthifolia from 

 the edge of a shady border send up spikes of yellow flowers 

 amidst waving, fernlike foliage. Groups of tall Doronicums 

 open their round yellow blooms among clumps of early 

 purple Iris; yellow Alyssum edges a long border with the 

 sky-blue Anchusa myosotidiflora and hardy white Candy- 

 tuft. 



Often the common Golden Alyssum is a bit too prominent in 

 the spring garden. It seeds itself so generously that there 

 is usually a good deal of it and it wears a most aggressive 

 hue, too raw and harsh. Kept in the soothing neighbour- 

 hood of light blue or lavender flowers or freely mingled with 

 white, it is amiable enough but it is out of harmony with 

 the rosy blossoming boughs of its season, and here, where 

 it wrapt the scarlet skirts of the Japanese Quince with a 

 fiercely yellow scarf, it was like a strident voice transcend- 

 ing the delicate harmonies of the spring world. It is too 

 bright and useful to be eliminated entirely, but it should be 

 carefully placed and restricted, and more use might well be 

 made of the pale variety called sulphureum which is of a 

 delicate sulphur colour and quite lacks the harshness in- 

 herent in the type. This plant is in most happy accord 



45 



