16 THE LITTLE GARDEN 



among the peonies, in the open ground, which must always be 

 left open for the well-being of that plant, bloom in late August a 

 dozen or two plants of that very tall Helianthus orgyalis. Miss 

 Mellish; below these, and planted among the peonies quite 

 thickly, are some fine later and lower hardy asters or Michaelmas 

 daisies, such as Lil Fardell, Climax, Aster amellus elegans; some- 

 times a Buddleia also has been allowed to seem as if escaping 

 from this group of gold and purple flowers by flowering to right 

 and left of it. Buddleias, in that case, were planted back of the 

 peonies, between them and their background of lilac or honey- 

 suckle, but not on the side with the spirea. 



See, now, what this simple planting gives us: a planting made 

 up. of, say, six lilacs, ten spireas, six bush honeysuckles, twenty- 

 four peonies, with the other plants used at discretion. Privacy, 

 shade at certain times of day, a screen, at least four little flower- 

 crops, and, at all times, beauty. In winter, a leafless beauty, it is 

 true. But how easily could one substitute for the lilacs white 

 spruce, with a group, to the right and left, of some sort of cedar 

 of a formal type, and face this curving round of evergreens with 

 a low border of the handsome Cotoneaster honzontalis, letting 

 these evergreen subjects take their way to full development 

 alone, with no intermixing of deciduous shrubs or trees. This 

 planting is more costly in its beginning, and its main flowers 

 should be a brilliant effect of color in spring, from crocus and 

 tulip; for herbaceous plants would not do well among these 

 roots. But a gorgeous picture could in this way be assured; a 

 rich green of foliage for the whole year is relieved in autumn by 

 the gay color of the foreground of cotoneaster. I am told, how- 

 ever, that this cotoneaster is not reliably hardy in the latitude 

 of Boston, and often loses its leaves in winter in the latitude of 

 Philadelphia; therefore, another low-growing shrub must be 

 found for the foregroimd of the grouping proposed. 



