COLOUR IN MY GARDEN 



To know that blue is indelibly stained upon this spot and 

 scarlet upon the next, that only devastating frost will dull 

 the yellow glow of another, and that to gather a Rose is to 

 leave a rent in the tapestry, is surely at variance with our 

 most cherished garden ideals. 



It is perhaps fortunate that our climatic conditions 

 render this sort of gardening almost an impossibility, so 

 that we must of necessity be satisfied with something much 

 more simple and approachable. On account of the extreme 

 heat and dryness of the American summers, flowers here 

 enjoy a far shorter individual life tenure than in the damper 

 atmosphere of the British Isles. No sooner is a fine display 

 of colour unfolded before our delighted gaze than it is gone, 

 and unless we have planned so that other groups shall at 

 once follow, a flowerless garden is our dour portion. Even in 

 the favoured climate of Great Britain it is not so simple a 

 matter to keep the garden abloom for months at a time. 

 In the introduction to Miss Jekyll's fine book on garden 

 colour she says: "I believe the only way it can be done is to 

 devote certain borders to certain times of year; each border 

 or garden region to be bright for from one to three months." 



The reasonableness of this method is of course obvious, yet 

 it seems to me fitted for adoption only in very large places, 

 where a "spring walk" or a "June border" might be 

 contrived in some portion of the grounds that need be 

 visited only at the season of its festival. In a large majority 

 of American gardens there is not space to give up any one 

 part to a single season; that is, without seriously lessening 

 the fine effect of the garden as a whole. When the owner is 

 regularly away from his garden during a certain portion of 



