COLOUR IN MY GARDEN 



sow annual Poppies in broad stretches in the borders. 

 Their days are too few and they leave such sad blanks when 

 they are gone. But of course one must have them, and a 

 good way is to sow a few seeds here and there among 

 perennials that will broaden out and cover the annual's sub- 

 sequent defection. Joan-silver-pin is its quaint early English 

 name, which means, I believe, a bit of finery, and as such we 

 must regard them. 



The English Field Poppy exists in my garden of its own 

 whim. Years ago a few seeds were scattered to fill a blank 

 space and ever since they have been as the proverbial mustard 

 seed. Each year I am constrained to pull out hundreds of 

 fresh young tufts, for one place is as good as another to them 

 and often a path will be solid with complaisant seedlings, 

 the beds all threaded with them, and peace and harmony in 

 dire jeopardy. But I leave a few and often these hap- 

 hazard elect supply the needed touch of brilliance to some 

 too-neutral group. Where I sit on the Garden House porch 

 I can see a stretch of lavender Nepeta and slightly bluer 

 Campanulas that would be lifeless in effect were it not for 

 the flashing trail of self-sown Poppies that brings out all 

 their delicate quality. 



Shirley Poppies are of a delightful pinkness not to be 

 found elsewhere in or out of Nature. They run the enchant- 

 ing scale from faintest blush to the dazzling rose-scarlet 

 that seems to me to be the true poppy colour, and the 

 diaphanous, silken blossoms are poised on stems so frail that 

 they seem to be ever balancing to keep from tipping over. 



Other annual Poppies, the Carnation-flowered and Peony- 

 flowered types, have even a wider colour range, embracing 



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