36 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 
umbine; white larkspur and Stokesia cyanea; deep blue colum- 
bine and the white Hes peris matronalis, also caraway; white 
Achillea Ptarmica pl. fl. and nigella or cornflower (if the 
latter does not grow too tall); purple Japanese Iris and Gyp- 
sophila paniculata (Infant’s breath); blue monkshood, elder- 
berry and meadow rue; blue larkspur, meadow rue and white 
wild carrot; Michaelmas daisy and the tall white Cosmos; 
forget-me-not and perennial candytuft; blue lupines and gar- 
den heliotrope; Canterbury bells and feverfew; snowdrops 
and scilla; grape hyacinth and Arabis albida; but in arrang- 
ing combinations you must not only have the bloom of plants 
coincident, but also an equality of height for each to act as 
a foil to the other; everything depends on the two blades of 
the scissors acting in conjunction. 
The more beautiful a bed is at any given time, the more 
sure it is to show blanks at other times. Through a mistake 
of judgment I grouped one year an entire bed with blue spring 
flowers, and until the end of June the effect was all that could 
be desired, but during the remainder of the season it was noth- 
ing. Few flowers remain in bloom longer than three or four 
weeks and some last but a week or ten days; one must recog- 
nize that each is but a small passing contribution to the sum- 
mer glory, and make provision for an understudy when a par- 
ticular star retires from the floral stage. I now know my 
flowers so well that I can count on the precise time when they 
come and go, and I have tried the experiment of planting cer- 
tain things at intervals over the garden, so that, for a week or 
two, when those plants are at the height of their bloom, a wave 
of that color is all over the beds instead of being massed in one 
place, to leave a great void when they go. Great care must be 
exercised if you place a little pink or blue in a yellow bed to 
end the engagement before the yellow plants rise in combat 
totheeye. It takes more knowledge to manage color this way, 
