216 MAKING OF A FLOWER GARDEN 



thought out .plans then there is little need of caution, 

 as the owner is not apt to run amuck among strange 

 flowers of unknown colors, but even here it is well 

 to pause and consider whether it is not well to let 

 well enough alone; at least one should always take 

 the precaution of informing himself as to just the 

 color and shade of all new introductions to the garden, 

 A trial garden is perhaps the most valuable posses- 

 sion a gardener can have. Here plants may be grown 

 experimentally, and transferred to the permanent 

 garden as they prove their fitness, and given just 

 the conditions and environment that will bring out 

 their good points to perfection. 



To emphasize the value of a color scheme one has 

 but to think of various inharmonious colors and imag- 

 ine them together, not for one day or for several 

 but for the entire season of their bloom, through a 

 succession of years. It is not bad color work that 

 a number of colors should occur in any one garden 

 but it is bad work when several tones of a coloi? 

 clash. As an example, blue and red may appear in 

 the same garden with much less discord than scarlet 

 and magenta. If one has no color scheme and is at 

 a loss to invent one a visit to the milliner's and the 

 massing together of quantities of flowers will very 

 soon demonstrate how much better the effect of the 

 proximity of certain colors is than of others, and 

 having determined this one may lay plans accord- 



