COLOUR IN MY GARDEN 



Thus carelessly disposed beneath the radiant boughs 

 they showed such matchless grace, such piquant vivacity, 

 that I was loath to go, and lingered, full of delight at this 

 choice bit of April's fancy, until the tender spring gloom 

 came out and wrapped the picture round, sending me on 

 my way. 



I could hardly wait for summer to wear away to the 

 time when I might add to my little garden the "awkward 

 grace" of a Crabapple tree and plant the ground beneath 

 it with glowing Tulips. Since then it has been my happy 

 lot to plant many Tulips beneath many flowering trees, and 

 I feel that no arrangement is so felicitous for both. My 

 feeling for Tulips has quite changed — few flowers are of so 

 fine a quality — but as I have met recently some people who 

 confess to a prejudice against them, the object of this 

 chapter is not so much to give lists of the best varieties, 

 as to go up and down the garden paths this fair May day, 

 enjoying the Tulip pictures in all their beauty and variety. 



The early or Dutch Tulips, that flower in the latter 

 days of April, we use as quaintly stiff and conventional 

 garden decorations. They line the beds and paths with 

 demure severity, exactly spaced and one in height, and 

 fill the garden pots and jars with even surfaces of bloom. 

 Their stems are short and sturdy, their colours frank and 

 bright, with a thin almost transparent quality to their 

 petals that gives them a shining look, as of an inner light. 

 These are the Tulips most often used for bedding and they 

 are the best for forcing indoors. Those belonging to the 

 "Due" group have very small flowers and bright, pure 

 colours. They are the earliest to bloom out of doors, and 



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