BAD COLOUR IN THE LONDON PARK GARDENS, 



22 I 



BAD COLOUR IN THE LONDON 

 PARK GARDENS. 



Though this may often seem to be a secondary 

 matter to the gardener, it is really a vital one 

 if we are to have beautiful flower gardens. 

 There is an immense waste of energy in the 

 direction not only of doubtful colour, but of 

 very bad colour, and that too from plants of- 

 ten expensive to winter in houses. Why this 

 should be is not so clear as is the fact that it 

 is to the interest of all who have gardens in 

 the open-air to have good colour, and not to 

 waste their energies. Instances of this we 

 shall give presently from gardens conducted 

 without regard to expense and with much in- 

 telligence in other ways. One cause of the 

 prevalence of bad colour is, perhaps, that plants 

 grown in houses in winter, and looked at near 

 at hand, are often attractive in colour, and yet 

 are bad when seen under different conditions 

 out of doors. Raisers and propagators of plants 

 too rarely take the trouble to study the effect 

 of them in the open air ; if they do, then their 

 judgment is at fault. No man who has given 

 attention to colour would group or mass such 

 things as the variegated Fuchsias, or the Iresine 

 and tinted Alternantheras. Things that are 

 bad in colour this and similarly cold years, 

 may give good colour now and then under the 

 most favourable circumstances. To this class 

 belong the Begonias — now so popular — which 

 are among the worst things we have for colour. 

 It is indisputable that a great many plants that 

 give this bad colour are tender or half-hardy, 

 and can only be kept through the winter in 

 houses and put out for a few weeks, while 

 the best colours are decidedly those of hardy 

 flowers — tufted Pansies, Roses, Carnations, 

 Delphiniums, and other plants. We now give 

 some instances of things seen in the London 

 parks in the middle of August. 



In Regent's Park much of the work done 

 is good, the mixed borders showing well, and 

 the sub-tropical and succulent grouping are as 

 good as can be expected of such plants in such 

 a season, but even here bad instances of what 

 we mean are found. Thus, near the east corner 

 entrance and close against a charming pool 

 containing Water-lilies, are two oval beds of 

 Golden Privet — always bad, and this year at 



its worst — variegated Veronicas, Perilla, and 

 other things equally ugly and hard. The effect 

 is deplorable, not only from being out of place, 

 but from being essentially bad in colour. And 

 so on through the range of beds ; Begonias 

 come out very badly, the taller kinds such 

 as President Camot, battered and mournful, 

 fuchs'wides a failure, and semperflorens no better. 

 Cuphea platycarpa is bad in colour however 

 used, and Lantana is but a shade better. Varie- 

 gated plants in general are very disappointing, 

 whether Veronicas, Fuchsias, Geraniums, or 

 Abutilons ; one of the worst, Abutilon Sowitzi, 

 is a study in bare stems and battered leaves. 

 In Hyde Park there are far too many Alter- 

 nantheras and carpet-plants ; such things are 

 bad at all times and in such a year as this 

 have no redeeming feature. The blue Lobe- 

 lias, overgrown, pallid and tumbled, are de- 

 pressing, and many of the grouped Fuchsias 

 are poor in colour, whether at a distance ornear 

 at hand. The very worst of them, that with 

 the small variegated leaves, has the aspect of 

 disease rather than beauty. Nearly as offen- 

 sive are the forms with golden, patched, or 

 bronzed leaves, as edging plants not worthy 

 of a moment's comparison with Mossy Saxi- 

 frage or London Pride. Even a bold group of 

 Bermuda Lilies, in themselves very handsome, 

 is utterly marred by lines of dingy Fuchsias 

 and Alternantheras with patches of dwarf 

 scarlet Zinnias between, plainly designed for a 

 startling contrast, and a failure at that, while 

 much inferior to similar groups where the 

 Lilies stand in their simple purity on a car- 

 pet of Mossy Saxifrage. In Battersea Park, ex- 

 posed to the cool draught of the river-side, 

 matters are even worse ; the tender plants used 

 for colour effect are in many places a complete 

 failure ; Iresine, Alternantheras, and Balsams 

 with hardly a leaf left, Begonias mere battered 

 wrecks, and Celosias sadly bedraggled. And 

 yet all the choicest, the most sheltered, and the 

 sunniest spots are given up to these poor exotics 

 in order to give them a chance. With so many 

 dull days these bad colours are cheerless and 

 depressing in the extreme, the only thing that 

 in any way retrieves such plants being a degree 

 of sunshine for which experience should tell 

 us it is often lost labour to prepare. In Batter- 

 sea Park not only are these things seen at their 



