COLOR IN THE LITTLE GARDEN 67 



exceeding brilliance to the little vista, looking in either direction. 

 They have developed from four packets of seed sown in the open 

 ground. In some cases the zinnias bloom forward almost to the 

 ground, agreeably interrupting the flow of lavender color of the 

 lower subjects. In others the ageratum seems to hold the field 

 against all comers, rising with a pretty defiance to almost a foot. 

 Thus the fiowers have arranged themselves as flowers will, with 

 grace and charm unspeakable. 



Nothing simpler is there in gardening than such a border as 

 this; nothing cheaper or less labor-taking — literally no upkeep 

 except now and then a woman's hand with scissors for a dead- 

 head among the rich-hued zinnias or the browning ageratum 

 clusters, or perhaps a shearing back of the out-cropping lower 

 flowers, to leave grass open to the sun. Yet, as I sit in the little 

 shelter and gaze down my short walk, watching the sun and 

 shade upon these colors, I wonder if England itself could show 

 me anything in simple borders more satisfying for late summer 

 than this one, in a town snatched only fifty years ago from the 

 original forests of the region. The value of this description lies 

 here: what has been done in an unfinished locality can be done 

 anywhere, and often with so much better effect, and with more 

 beautiful results, than have been had with us. 



For a good effect of color in annuals I must repeat here a very 

 practical and beautiful suggestion for a border of these flowers 

 made lately in a gardening periodical by Miss Jekyll, the great 

 English authority. "The plan," writes Miss Jekyll, "shows a 

 border of annuals arranged for good color, with blue and white 

 and pale yellow at one end, passing to stronger yellow, orange, 

 and red in the middle, and then on to pink and purple at the 

 farther end." For the planting from left to right these special 

 flowers are suggested: yellow nasturtiiun, primrose, sunflower, 

 blue cornflower, nigella, nemophila, escholtzia (buff), primrose. 



