Color Effects that Have Really Succeeded 



DESCRIPTIONS OF THE ACTUAL EFFECTS OBTAINED IN PLANTING FOR COLOR AND SUCCESSION - SOME 

 SUGGESTIVE COMBINATIONS AND NOTES ON THE PECULIARITIES OF THE PARTICULAR VARIETIES 



Pink, Blue and Yellow for a 

 Shaded Garden 



By Anne D. McKibbin, Minnesota 



I WAS interested in reading, in the Feb- 

 ruary, 1910, Garden Magazine, the 

 editor's plea for personality in our gardens. 

 The hint about trying the color scheme of 

 blue and white especially appealed to me. 

 In the smaller gardens too many colors are 

 allowed, thus producing an effect of "spot- 

 tiness"; harmony and restfulness are lack- 

 ing. I believe that in a small garden better 

 effects may be had by choosing a definite 

 number of colors — not too many of them, 

 either — • and sticking to them. 



For a garden where there is a good deal of 

 shade, as in my own, the softer, paler colors 

 look best. Their delicacy of tint would be lost 

 if they were grown in the sun. Bright reds, 

 deep oranges and yellows look crude and 

 hard in the shade, but grown in a sunny bor- 

 der, they lose that glad look and light up 

 wonderfully, becoming luminous, and warm, 

 and glowing. 



The color scheme of my garden is very 

 simple, but quite a variety of plants is grown. 

 I discovered some time ago that the three 

 colors which pleased me most were pink, 

 yellow, and blue. A good deal of white is 

 used, and lots of foliage, both bright green 

 and the gray-green, as of the catmint leaves. 

 The silvery foliage of the hardy carnations 

 is valuable along the edegs of borders, as is 

 the foliage of the California poppies. 



A garden of this sort, which has a definite 

 color scheme, needs a lot of planning, and I 

 believe is more interesting on that account. 

 My reason for choosing paler colors for this 

 garden was chiefly the fact that the garden 

 is somewhat shaded, and not that I dislike 

 the deeper colors in their proper places. 

 Of course, no garden could be complete 

 which did not contain an entire range of 

 colors. But I see few, if any, complete 

 gardens. The perfect garden is something 

 to be striven for but seldom gained, especially 

 in the adverse climate of Minnesota, where 

 gardening, at best, is a struggle. 



In the spring, when the borders are empty 

 of perennial bloom, the bulbs supply the 

 color. I have many thousands of them. 

 Spring is the only time when I allow red in 

 my garden, for I cannot resist the scarlet 

 tulips, the most beautiful of all. The bulbs 

 are planted in clumps among the green tufts 

 of foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) leaves, the 

 feathery pyrethrums and pale-like leaves 

 of the delphiniums. The pink tulips are 

 Picotee, Dainty Maid, Isabella, Inglescombe 

 Pink, pink and also white Joost van Vandel, 

 and Cottage Maid. The white are Nelly and 

 Pottebakker White. The yellows are Canary 

 Bird, Chrysolora, Ophir d'Or. The red 

 ones are Keizerskroon, Rembrandt, Potte- 

 bakker Scarlet. I never use double tulips. 



The narcissus are in such infinite variety 

 that it has been hard to make a selection, 

 but I have finally settled on the following, 

 although I like to try a few new ones each 

 year. For the trumpets. Emperor, Em- 

 press, Princeps, Horsefieldi, Mrs. W. T. 

 Ware. The medium-cupped ones are in- 

 comparabilis cynosure. Sir Watkin, Barri 

 conspicuus, and Leedsi. The small-cupped 

 ones are Narcissus poeticus and var. ornatus, 

 also the double form or gardenia narcissus. 

 The only other double I have is Orange 

 Phoenix. 



I have crocuses and hyacinths in blue, 

 both dark and light, pale and deep pink and 

 white, and a pale yellow. The grayish 

 purple heads of Fritillaria meleagris are 

 always interesting to visitors. The pansies 

 are usually in bloom by this time, and a few 

 English daisies {Bellis perennis) are pink 

 along the edges of borders. 



The next perennial to bloom is the colum- 

 bine (Aquilegia). I have many kinds, the 

 old-fashioned double rose and dull purple, 

 single and double white, a few pink single, 

 the coerulea or Rocky Mountain hybrids, 

 and the blue Count Zeppelin. The last to 

 bloom is the tall yellow and it lasts for sev- 

 eral months. It grows in front of Del- 

 phinium formosum and formosum cosles- 

 tinum, and next to tall pyramids of pink 

 Canterbury bells {Campanula Medium) and 

 a few white ones. These (delphinium, yellow 

 columbine and pink Canterbury bells) are the 

 only plants in bloom in the border at 

 this time, and the effect is lovely. 



Another long bed has all sorts of sweet 

 William {Dianthus harhatus) except the New- 

 port Pink, which is elsewhere, and tall pink 

 rose and white fox-glove {Digitalis purpurea). 

 The Newport Pink sweet William I have in 

 a bed with plenty of white and pale green, 

 and the pretty Campanula Carpatica, which 

 trails along as a sort of edging. California 

 poppies are here, too. In another long bed 

 I have, first of all, bulbs, then mixed colum- 

 bine, and, after these are over, hybrid del- 

 phiniums, mostly a pale blue with a large 

 black eye, are in bloom with tall spikes of 

 Madonna lilies. Later the bed is filled 

 with cosmos. 



In the border first spoken of, and one other, 

 a later combination is dark blue monkshood 

 {Aconitum Napellus) and vivid phlox Coque- 

 licot (pink), also white phlox (like Jeanne 

 d'Arc). I fill in all the chinks with annuals. 

 I have asters. Comet and Tall Branching, 

 in pink rose, white and lavender. Long beds 

 of snapdragon and ten weeks' stock supplant 

 the bulb beds. I have lots of Centaurea 

 imperialis, in three colors — Marguerite, 

 white, Iphigenia, lavender and white; and 

 Chameleon, yellow. They are fine for 

 cutting. 



There are several good varieties of Cali- 

 fornia poppies now, including a pale cream 

 68 



and a pink. These make nice edgings, as 

 does also the annual Phlox Drummondi. 

 There is a gorgeous variety of Oriental pop- 

 pies in silvery pink, called by some Blush 

 Queen. It is not always sure to come true 

 from seed, and is hard to grow, but worth the 

 trouble. 



Other annuals are yellow African mari- 

 golds, yellow and pink zinnias, Nigella Miss 

 Jekyll (a lovely cornflower blue), all sorts 

 of double and single Shirley poppies and the 

 pink tulip poppies, annual pinks of many 

 varieties, annual lupines which I have from 

 England (Hartwegii, they are called) in 

 pink, white, and blue. 



The irises are quite a problem, for they 

 come in so many colors that I have had a hard 

 time choosing. I have two varieties of Ger- 

 man iris after much experimenting, having 

 decided I like them best — Madam Chereau, 

 a lovely lavender and white, and a pale cream 

 variety, most common, but very pretty. I 

 have also the tall iris Dalmatia (lavender) 

 and the white Florentine iris. I have only 

 three sorts of Japanese iris — a lot of large 

 double white, deep blue and a frilled blue 

 striped white, known to one seedsman as 

 Alice Kiernan. 



The hardy asters, tall cosmos, and Bol- 

 tonia, both white and pink, are the best 

 things in gardens toward fall. I have tried 

 Japanese anemones, but the frost usually 

 catches them, and I am disappointed. 



The lilies are the glory of my garden, for 

 the damp situation and shelter provided to 

 the roots by a steep bank make it possible for 

 me to succeed with many kinds. I like the 

 Madonna {L. candidum) best. They are 

 the most satisfactory, too. Then I have 

 L. speciosum, vars. Melpomene, rubrum, and 

 album. A few L. auratum are planted from 

 year to year, and the beautiful pink Japon- 

 icum rubellum, or Krameri, I always have 

 a few of. L. longiflorum succeeds as well as 

 any, many of my plants being four feet tall. 

 I grow my lilies in a long bed with ferns, 

 which cover up the scraggly stalks of the 

 lilies and keep the roots cool, and I usually 

 plant in spring. I have the old-fashioned 

 lemon day lily {Hemerocallis Jlava) , too, and 

 intend to arrange it next year with some tall 

 blue plant, if I can find one suitable. 



My garden is so small that I have only one 

 rose, a Dorothy Perkins, over the summer- 

 house, and I have very few peonies, for they 

 need such a lot of room. 



Color Harmonies in Adjoining 

 Beds 



By M. N- Reed, New York City 



THIS garden plot, iiox 52 ft., is on the 

 site of an old tennis court, cut off a 

 sloping hill, and is truly a woman's hardy 

 garden, as no assistant gardener sets foot 

 within its gate, but to mow the grass walks. 



