COLOUR IN MY GARDEN 



serve throughout the year the beauty and fitness of Nature's 

 chance planting by stream and lake margin and in broad 

 stretches of marsh, and while one wants to cut away her 

 too rank thickets of Alder and Viburnum, and extend the 

 sweep of burning Cardinal Flower, there is grace and mean- 

 ing in her choice of material and even in her limitations 

 and excesses. Daily in winter I pass a bit of marshy 

 stream margin that fills me with a sense of deepest satis- 

 faction. Here, among the warm brown and yellow grasses, 

 spring tall and closely massed the bright orange stems of 

 Willows; in front are the rich red stems of the Red Osier 

 Dogwood, and stretching away against the cold blue sky 

 of winter the warm brown wood of Viburnums. When 

 snow covers the neutralizing grasses my picture shines with 

 arresting brilliance. 



No trees or shrubs are so well adapted for use by the 

 waterside as the various Willows. It is their natural 

 abiding place and here only are their special qualities of 

 soft colour and delicate line brought to their best de- 

 velopment. Salix vitellina aurea, the Golden Willow, has 

 bark of a warm orange tone that deepens to brilliance in 

 expectation of the young leaves in early spring. It has a red- 

 twigged form that appears very like Cornus alba in the 

 winter landscape, the variety Britzensis, and there is, I 

 believe, a variety with soft bluish stems called Colorado. 

 The beautiful White Willow with its silvery leaves is 

 related to these and grows to a great height. I remember a 

 fine planting of White Willows on the lake shore at Mr. Wil- 

 liam Robinson's place, Gravetye, England. The trees were 

 finely grouped and the masses of soft silvery foliage were 



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