g COLOUR SCHEMES 



the Birches of the wood, it has a back planting of such 

 shrubs as both accord in colour with the flowering 

 plants and lead suitably to the further woodland. 

 These are Rhododendron frcBCOx and Andromeda 

 [Pieris) florihunda — a wide-spreading Savin is already 

 behind them — ^while the front planting is stiffened 

 by some of the early blooming Heaths, Erica carnea 

 in one or two colourings and E. hybrida. There is 

 also, though the bloom will not be till later, a kind 

 of backbone of Alpenrose {Rhododendron ferruginium), 

 which gives a certain aspect of strength and sohdity. 



Through April and May the leaves of the bulbs are 

 growing tall, and their seed-pods are carefully removed 

 to prevent exhaustion. By the end of May the Ferns 

 are throwing up their leafy crooks ; by June the 

 feathery fronds are displayed in all their tender fresh- 

 ness ; they spread over the whole bank, and we forget 

 that there are any bulbs between. By the time the 

 June garden, whose western boundary it forms, has 

 come into fullest bloom it has become a completely 

 furnished bank of Fern-beauty. 



