168 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



contrivance, we should not grow our annuals among 

 other plants as nature grows them, why they should 

 not fill up blank spaces just when they are needed, 

 and why they should not be overgrown as soon as 

 their flowering time is over. It is true that by grow- 

 ing them on this plan we cannot have the great masses 

 of one single kind of flower which the present taste 

 approves. But the present taste is a Uttle too timid 

 about mixtures and contrasts of colour. Few of those 

 who advise upon the colour arrangement of flowers 

 seem to be aware that nearly all colours go well to- 

 gether in a garden, if only they are thoroughly mixed 

 up. It is the half-hearted contrasts, where only two 

 or three colours are employed, and those the wrong 

 ones, that are really ugly. The Orientals know more 

 about colour than we do, and in their colouring they 

 imitate the audacity and profusion of nature. It is 

 true, also, that if we mix up annuals with other plants, 

 some of the annuals will probably be smothered. 

 But this cannot be helped. Annuals are cheap, and 

 the gardeners who take them most seriously thin 

 them out most relentlessly. If we can leave it to 

 nature to do the thinning, so much the better. 



Now nature will do the thinning for us thoroughlj' 

 enough, sometimes too thoroughly, if we sow our 

 annuals as she does, in the late summer or autumn. 

 There is always a risk in doing this — a risk so great 

 as to be scarcely worth running on very heavy soils. 

 But on fairly light ones it is worth taking, since an- 

 nuals are cheap. Gardeners are curiously timorous 



