CHAPTER XVII 

 A WORD FOR COLOURED FOLIAGE 



You ought to love colour and to think nothing quite beautiful or perfect 

 without it. — Ruskin. 



IN AMERICA, where the sun-hastened flowers have 

 a short individual life tenure, it takes an immense 

 variety of plants to maintain a succession of bloom 

 in our gardens, and we do not sufficiently appreciate the 

 importance of fine foliage of a permanent character that 

 will enable us to keep the borders fresh and full when the 

 flowers are not in evidence. That this fine foliage should 

 also be handsomely coloured is in some cases an added 

 advantage and one that we should be quick to make use of 

 when we feel that persistent colour is desirable. 



Of course coloured leaved plants and shrubs have been 

 so unfortunately used in the past as lawn specimens and 

 in bedding out that they are at present out of favour. Many 

 of them, too, are quite too ginger-bready for any beauty at 

 all, but there are others freshly variegated, soft gray, or 

 rich purplish-maroon that are both fine and distinct and 

 which, when carefully chosen and used with restraint, will 

 add much to the borders and shrubberies. 



After its spring flowering the shrubbery, for the most 



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