COLOUR IN MY GARDEN 



with their waywardness. Surely they are the acme of grace, 

 the best of laughter, the rarest embodiment of all that is 

 delightsome, careless, touchingly fugitive. 



Joys too exquisite to last 



And yet more exquisite when past. 



Many flowers have given their names to colours. The 

 wonder is that some brave hue does not challenge our 

 admiration as "poppy colour." But after all, which of this 

 flower's daring or tender revelations would be chosen? To 

 me poppy colour would mean that peculiar, sparkling rose- 

 red found among the Shirleys — one of the most telling and 

 distinctive hues in the floral world — but perhaps the thin 

 scarlet glare of the English Field Poppy is the most typical. 

 I shall never forget the wonder of a high meadow afloat 

 with these vibrant flowers I once saw against the setting 

 sun in England. Ruskin says: "The poppy is the most 

 transparent and delicate of all the blossoms of the field. 

 The rest, nearly all of them, depend on the texture of their 

 surface for colour. But the poppy is painted glass; it never 

 glows so brightly as when the sun shines through it. Wher- 

 ever it is seen against the light or with the light, it is a 

 flame, and warms the mind like a blown ruby." 



It is a pity that Poppies are in such haste to shed their 

 silken petals and display their crowned seed pods, for 

 there are few flowers that we would rather have in masses 

 in the garden borders. Few exhibit such entrancing shades 

 and tints and none displays the exquisite poised grace of 

 the great Poppy flower swaying upon its delicately slender 

 but quite adequate stem. It is not the part of wisdom to 



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