HARDY PERENNIALS 25 



alba. The big leaves of the Colchicum grow in spring, 

 and there would be nothing but leaves were it not for 

 the masses of Daffodils. By and by the leaves of the 

 Colchicums and Daffodils are dry enough to pull away, 

 and then the Campanula, be it pusilla, alba, or turbinata 

 alba, comes into a sheet of bloom. Before the bloom has 

 passed away the Colchicum blooms begin to push up, 

 and as some of my Colchicums are five inches across, of 

 the richest rose colour, I do not exactly feel that this is 

 a colourless kind of gardening, and as I have a hundred 

 different kinds of Daffodils, this little arrangement will 

 not be without interest in spring. 



The Daffodils and Colchicums root deeply and grow 

 mostly in winter, requiring water then, and not in sum- 

 mer, when the Campanula carpet is taking it all. There 

 are some, however, which one must be careful about — 

 the common White Lily, for instance, which wants 

 exposing to the sun in the autumn. I do not mind the 

 exquisite French Poppies among these candidum Lilies, 

 because the Poppies die about August, and then the 

 Lilies get their baking and refuse to show the bare earth, 

 soon covering it all with their leaves. For the extreme 

 front of the border hundreds of combinations will occur — 

 Pansies over Daffodils, Portulaca over Central Asian 

 bulbs, Christmas Roses and Hellebores over the taller 

 Daffodils, with Gladioli, Tritomas, Hepaticas, and 

 autumn-blooming and spring-blooming Cyclamens, with 

 Scillas and Snowdrops. When Anemone Japonica is 

 low, up come the taller Tulips, Sylvestris for instance, 

 and higher still out of the dark green leaves come the 

 bejewelled Crown Imperials. 



Such a border as this is never dull, never unin- 

 teresting, and never flowerless. 



To start a herbaceous border, the autumn is usually 

 the best time, and the earlier in the autumn you set 

 about the work, the better. The majority of bulbs are 



