COLOUR IN MY GARDEN 



the flowers are vast, satin in texture and sheen, sometimes 

 torn and fringed at the edges, sometimes double, sometimes 

 single — but always of the most imperious yet well-bred 

 loveliness, in every pure shade of colour from the white 

 snows of Fuji at dawn, through faintest shades of pearl and 

 pale rose to the growing ardours of coral, salmon, scarlet, 

 vermilion, sanguine; and so on, into the deep tones of 

 crimson, claret, and a maroon that deepens almost to 

 black." I do not know who, after reading this, can resist 

 adding these flowers to his garden and it is well also to 

 heed Mr. Farrer's warning that the European grown Tree 

 Peony is far inferior to those raised in China. 



Mrs. Basil Taylor* tells us that the Peony is too flam- 

 boyant in its dyes to appeal to the sensitive Japanese, who, 

 unlike the colour-loving Chinese, "revel in the pearly half- 

 tints, the mauves and dove colours of their Irises and 

 Wistarias, the pale rosy clouds of their masses of Plum and 

 Cherry." But of late the Japanese has turned the magic 

 of his art toward the Peony and has given us a new race 

 distinct and aesthetic in type, dyed with the tender and 

 illusive colours so dear to the people who send them forth, 

 and exhibiting many charming irregularities of form, 

 double, semi-double, and of the most delicate satiny 

 texture. 



After contemplation of these frailly fashioned and gracious 

 blossoms the June Peony seems somewhat coarse and heavy, 

 yet it has its place and we should miss its opulent beauty 

 that seems to typify the fulness of its birth month. Their 

 name is legion and I do not know a great many, personally, 



•"Japanese Garden." 



125 



