HARDY FLOWER BORDERS 23 



of bloom. Lilies in variety; Gladioli, glorious in colour; 

 Delphiniums, bluer than summer skies ; Aquilegias and 

 stately Hollyhocks ; Gaillardias, Autumn Anemones, 

 Pinks and myriad-flowered Asters ; flaming Torch 

 Lilies and scented Paeonies ; lavender and steel-blue 

 Sea Hollies, both delightful tone contrasts to their 

 gay companions ; Dielytra, feathery Spiraeas, Phloxes, 

 Pyrethrum, and Evening Primrose ; scarlet Salvias and 

 fragrant Rocket. Spring would find the borders 

 bright with gold and blue and silver — Narcissi, Grape 

 Hyacinths, and Scillas ; Snowflakes, Crocuses, and sheets 

 of Tufted Pansies. In winter there may be Christmas 

 Roses and Alpine Heaths, the rich green foliage of 

 Saxifrage and Rockfoil, Iris Stylosa in warm places, and 

 all the wondrous combinations of tender colour as dis- 

 played in the stems of many herbaceous plants. It is a 

 bad plan to cut down these stems in autumn; rather should 

 they be allowed to remain to give us beautiful effects in 

 the winter garden. 



At the back of the path borders we might arrange 

 grass plots, unbroken stretches of turf as large as the 

 size of the garden will permit. Grass is desirable in 

 the smallest garden, but it should never be cut up into 

 beds. Fringing the miniature lawns, a planting of 

 choice flowering shrubs would look well, and would 

 help to ensure privacy and a degree of shelter. Between 

 these shrubs and the grass, space could be found for a 

 further planting of good herbaceous things, only these 

 must be chosen from a class of plants which does not 

 object to partial shade and the encroachment of shrub 

 roots. By far the most effective way of securing these 

 shrub and plant combinations, is to group the former so 

 that they present an irregular margin with frequent 

 recesses and embrasures running inwards from the 

 grass edge. In these may be planted colonies of fine- 

 leaved Ferns, Foxgloves, Solomon's Seal, Day Lilies, 



