FLOWERS IN THE LITTLE GARDEN 57 



cosmos, — the early dwarf is the best for cool climates, — ■ sweet 

 alyssum (Little Gem), candytuft, stocks, the nicotines, both 

 Nicotiana affinis and the larger Nicotiana sylvestris — both excel- 

 lent white-flowered things. Annual gypsophila, or chalk-plant, 

 and Phlox Drummondii, in white again; white verbena has a 

 place of its own among these. 



Do not think that those mentioned above complete the list of 

 annuals available for the little garden. It is only a rough, general 

 list, most casual; meant to serve only as a reminder of things 

 quickly obtainable and practically sure to do well anywhere. A 

 small garden may easily be well managed with the annuals alone; 

 but it is when the three — annuals, perennials, and bulbs, spring, 

 summer, and autumn flowering — are happily used together, that 

 the triumph comes. And for an imbroken succession of bloom 

 no one has laid down a clearer or better rule than has Miss 

 Shelton in her book, " Continuous Bloom in America." The alter- 

 nation of plants of several periods of bloom planted in lines or 

 circular groups, in broken though regular order, is the secret of 

 well-balanced flowering. This is a thing to remember for small 

 formal spaces; in fact, it could be practised readily in the small 

 informal border, by forgetting that part of the injunction con- 

 cerning lines. It is my own habit to do this, though it has per- 

 haps become an instinct too, as such habits will. 



I have not touched upon the subject of summer-flowering 

 bulbs, and there is a fairly long list of these. What a resource is 

 in them, too, for the garden! First of all, because of their form. 

 Nearly all of this tribe are upright in habit, their leaves are 

 straight, swordlike, from the ground, or narrow from an upright 

 stem; the flowers are borne upon tall, straight, slender stems, yet 

 the range of color in these same flowers is immense. The value of 

 the stiff habit of growth of lily, of gladiolus, is the value of con- 

 trast in the garden. Almost all flowering masses of other plants 



