COLOUR IN MY GARDEN 



the bell-hung swamp Leucothe (Leucothoe racemosa), which 

 in Garden & Forest is described as a "fast-growing shrub 

 which sometimes attains a height of ten feet; its slender 

 branches are covered with dark green leaves which late in 

 the autumn, long after those of every other tree and shrub 

 cultivated in gardens have fallen, assumes a beautiful and 

 brilliant scarlet colour." And still we have the shy Swamp 

 Rose (Rosa Carolina); the scented Spice Bush that reaches 

 its branches lovingly out over the water; the fragrant 

 Sweet Pepper Bush (Clethra alnifolia) with spikes of white 

 blossoms late in the summer; the scarlet-berried Indian 

 Currant (Symphoricarpos vulgaris) ; The Button Bush (Ce- 

 phalanthus occidentalis) with its white spherical blooms 

 that turn a warm terra-cotta as they mature, and the two 

 water-loving Spiraeas, S. tomentosa and S. salicifolia (the 

 Meadow Sweet). 



Plants for the water margin are most effective if they 

 exhibit the rushlike foliage or spiry blossoming that is 

 characteristic of so many water-loving plants. Few are 

 handsomer than our native Cat-tail (Typha latifolia), and 

 the water Irises show the same sort of slender, grasslike 

 foliage with the added beauty of splendid flowers. In our 

 admiration for the great Japanese Iris I think we are apt 

 to overlook the many other good kinds that enjoy the same 

 sort of position. Iris ochroleuca, comfortably established in 

 wet places, grows nearly six feet tall and bears great thick 

 ivory-coloured blossoms with a gold band at the base of the 

 falls. Near this we might have a plantation of Iris aurea, 

 with its buoyant, butter-coloured blossoms, and near again 

 the great Monspur, with deep blue blossoms and the hand- 



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