COLOUR IN MY GARDEN 



Marigolds and Nasturtiums. Gaillardias I particularly dis- 

 like, save the pure yellow Lady Rolleston, on account of 

 their red and yellow colour scheme, yet I always admire 

 them warmly when seen in my friends' autumn gardens. 

 Scarlet and purple would jar the colour sensibilities of many 

 during the summer months, yet how delighted are we now 

 at the massing of purple Michaelmas Daisies against the 

 flaming Virginia Creeper both in the garden and along the 

 roadside. All over my own garden after the tenth of 

 September flows a tide of Michaelmas Daisies, filling the 

 garden with soft colour through which burst with telling 

 effect the conflagrations of scarlet and gold, the whole so 

 splendid and satisfying as to make me quite forget the tender 

 beauty of spring or the brave days of the Iris and the June 

 Roses. 



My favourite flowers in the autumn garden, after the 

 hardy Asters, are Heleniums. Helenium autumnale is 

 one of the best yellow flowers of the entire year. It wears a 

 warm full tone, yet soft and entirely lacking in the garish 

 quality that spoils the Sunflowers; the variety pumi- 

 lum shows the same fine tone of yellow, but is of lesser 

 stature, growing only about two feet tall while the other 

 reaches six in good soil. Helenium autumnale rubrum, with 

 its round russet-coloured blossoms, is perhaps the most 

 decorative flower of the season. It is splendid grouped with 

 the lavender hardy Aster Climax and such a shining 

 Torch Lily as Kniphofia Golconda. H. autumnale striatum, 

 with its yellow petals flushed and streaked with scarlet, is 

 less fine than the other two, but is worth planting where 

 there is room for a number. 



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