THE FLOWER BORDER IN AUGUST 71 



it is a thing that blooms the season after it is planted, 

 and of which I have plenty in reserve, such as an 

 Anthemis, a Tradescantia, or a Helenium, I sacrifice 

 a portion of the plant-group, knowing that it can 

 easily be replaced. But then by August many of the 

 plants have spread widely above and there is space 

 below. Liliwm longiflorum in pots is used in the 

 same way, and for the most part in this blue end of 

 the border, though there are also some at the further, 

 purple end, and just a flash of their white beauty in 

 the middle region of strong reds. 



In order to use both blue and purple in the flower 

 border, this cool, western, grey-fohaged end has the 

 blues, and the further, eastern end the purples. For 

 although I like to use colour as a general rule in har- 

 monies rather than contrasts, I prefer to avoid, except in 

 occasional details, a mixture of blue and purple. At 

 this end, therefore, there are flowers of pure blue 

 — Delphinium, Anchusa, Salvia, Blue Cape Daisy and 

 Lobelia, and it is only when the main mass of blue, of 

 Delphiniums and Anchusas, is over that even the 

 presence of the pale grey-blue of Campanula lactiflora 

 is made welcome. Near the front is another pale 

 grey-blue, that of Clematis davidiana, just showing a 

 few blooms, but not yet fully out. 



Now, giving a pleasant rest and refreshment to the 

 eye after the blues and greys, is a well-shaped drift 

 of the pale sulphur African Marigold. It was meant 

 to be the dwarf variety, but, as it grows two and a half 

 feet high, it has been pulled down as it grew. Some 

 of it has been brought down some way over the edge 



