CHAPTER XVI 



EFFECTIVE PLANT GROUPING FOR 

 VARIOUS SEASONS 



THERE would appear to be an increasing desire 

 on the part of the owners of gardens — born, 

 doubtless, of the period during which they are in resi- 

 dence in town or country — to have their rock gardens, 

 as, indeed, all other parts of the garden, as effective as 

 possible at such times. The idea is both natural and 

 legitimate. Of necessity, however, in such instances, 

 the greater variety of plants available have to give way 

 to a limited number whose flowering can be relied upon 

 when required. In accomplishing this it almost invari- 

 ably happens that the choicer gems of crevice and fis- 

 sure are displaced by others capable of a greater dis- 

 play, those, like the Aubrietias, alpine Phloxes, or Gen- 

 tianella, that afford pictures of colour — veritable sheets 

 or carpets of flowers — for weeks together. Such as 

 these, indeed, may be made much of in the hands of 

 the intelligent plant grouper; he who, being quick of 

 discernment and of an artistic temperament, will 

 fashion his groups accordingly, and, while avoiding 

 formality — the usual failing in these cases — secure 

 pleasing harmonies or striking contrasts in a way 

 which commands attention at once. Such an one will 

 not blaze forth all the colours of the rainbow in fapid 

 succession on a solitary bank or slope to constitute 

 one huge incongruous whole. Preferably will he dis- 

 pose his groups in massed battalions where the effect 

 will be whole-hearted, complete, invulnerable. In such 

 cases the colour groups, unless agreeably harmonising, 

 should not run one into the other; rather should they 



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