COLOUR IN MY GARDEN 



and wild to give any sort of effect in the ordinary flower 

 garden. The best for this purpose are the various strains 

 of "long-spurred hybrids" offered by most seedsmen. These 

 have been carefully selected and grow tall and strong and 

 wear a great variety of delicate tints and shades: old rose, 

 pink, lavender, purple, buff, cream, yellow, a sort of skimmed- 

 milk blue, and many in combinations of two colours. 



It is interesting to raise our own Columbines from seed 

 gathered from the best-coloured and strongest of our plants. 

 We get some most delightful results and even the gypsy seed- 

 lings springing up here and everywhere about the garden are 

 often of great beauty. To be seen at their best these 

 exquisitely modelled blossoms should shine against a back- 

 ground that throws them into relief. They are splendid 

 massed against evergreens, or tall plants of a good green. 

 In a huddle of other flowers the modelling of the blossoms is 

 lost sight of. The persistently fine foliage of Aquilegias 

 makes them particularly valuable in the borders. We may 

 plant them in broad masses without fear of ensuing bare 

 places, and they may also be used charmingly in association 

 with other flowers of their day. Yellow Columbines (A. 

 chrysantha) are gay among the soft blue Peach-leaved 

 Campanulas; white ones with the Forget-me-not Anchusa 

 (A. myosotidiflora) ; pink ones among the stiff spikes of 

 mauve Camassia, and so on. Among Ferns they are always 

 happy and at home. 



But preeminent among flowers of grace are Poppies. 

 Like the children, I like to save the best for the last, but 

 all this while my thoughts have been alight with them, my 

 paper stained with their gallant colour, my heart vibrating 



85 



