INTRODUCTION 



To plant and maintain a flower border, with a good 

 scheme for colour, is by no means the easy thing that is 

 commonly supposed. 



I believe that the only way in which it can be made 

 successful is to devote certai n border s to certain times^ 

 of jrear ; each border or garden region to be bright 

 for from one to three inqnths. 



Nothing seems to me more imsatisfactory than the 

 border that in spring shows a few patches of flowering 

 bulbs in ground otherwise looking empty, or with tufts 

 of herbaceous plants just coming through. Then the 

 bulbs die down, and their place is wanted for something 

 that comes later. Either the ground will then show 

 bare patches, or the place of the bulbs will be forgotten 

 and they will be cruelly stabbed by fork or trowel 

 when it is wished to put something in the apparently 

 empty space. 



For many years I have been working at these 

 problems ip my own garden, and, having come to 

 certain conclusions, can venture to put them forth 

 with some confidence. I may mention that from the 

 nature of the ground, in its original state partly wooded 

 and partly bare field, and from its having been brought 

 into ciiltivation and some sort of shape before it was 



