Color in the Flower Garden 
TO many, a garden means simply the intensive cul- 
tivation of a portion of the home grounds for the 
display of flowering plants. The plants are not 
considered as a part of the real garden design, but simply 
as individual plants. The opportunity to secure pleasing 
harmony of color, by a careful study of the arrangement 
of all the features that go to make up the garden, has 
been lost. The first requisite of any garden is to have 
a color scheme that will harmonize with the fundamental 
design idea. If the emphasis of the garden is horticul- 
tural, then we must secure our interest by the use of 
plant color. If the emphasis is architectural, the plant 
color should be such as to give the predominance of in- 
terest to the architectural features. 
One of the most important features of any problem 
in garden design, then, will be the selection and use of 
materials to secure a pleasing color composition. In a 
garden where the emphasis is horticultural or plant 
material is used to secure the interest, the problem is 
almost one of color arrangement. While the arrange- 
ment of the plant material in any landscape problem is 
of the utmost importance because of the more intensive 
use of the area set aside for the garden, horticultural 
emphasis makes the color phase more difficult and also 
more important. The real test of a garden will first be 
the general color harmony of the whole, then the jux- 
taposition of the several colors and lastly the quality of 
the colors themselves. A single color out of place will 
often ruin an otherwise successful color scheme. No 
result however satisfying in other respects will be suc- 
cessful if the color problem has not been carefully worked 
out. In the Italian gardens we have the blue of the 
Italian sky used as the dominating color of the landscape 
problem. While these gardens may be said to lack strong 
contrasts in the materials that have been used for their 
construction and embellishment, the bright blue of the 
sky overhead, and its reflection in the pools will ever 
make these gardens bright and cheerful. In England 
where the climatic conditions are much different than in 
Italy, we have a much different type of material used. 
The color of the typical English gardens is secured by 
the use of flowering plants and turf. All materials used 
have more color and often depend for the interest on this 
fact alone. The designer of these gardens may not have 
made color plans for these gardens, but unconsciously 
felt the existing natural influences. 
After the color framework or color setting has been 
worked out, the next question will be that of the color of 
the materials that are to be used to embellish or to furnish 
the garden. The materials of construction make up our 
room and we are now to select the furnishings. If it has 
been impossible to secure a satisfactory color basis, the 
problem will be to feature these materials. The materials 
used to embellish our garden are grouped as architec- 
tural, horticultural, and natural. 
These materials are grouped under two heads. The 
first of these are the practical, or the materials of con- 
struction, and the second, the esthetic, or those which 
embellish the design. The materials of construction may 
be either architectural or plant material. These materials 
are the ones used to build up the framework or to carry 
out the fundamental lines of the design. This will include 
the walls, walks, steps, pavements, etc. If we are using 
materials such as stones that will be left in natural color, 
we are careful to select either the same color and kind of 
stone as the architecture with which the garden is con- 
nected, or some color that will harmonize with it. In 
many cases we are prevented, because of the dominating 
materials of the architecture, from introducing into our 
gardens a color feature in these materials. Materials 
that sink, as wood, can often be made a feature by the 
use of paint or stains on the wood. The questions of 
color in these materials should be carefully considered 
before we plan the other features of the garden, particu- 
larly if the emphasis is to be architectural. 
If plant material is used in this way, we must select 
such plants as will give the desired effect. The horti- 
cultural plant materials as used in a garden scheme are 
divided into two classes, the material of construction or 
the practical, and those used to embellish the garden or 
the esthetic. 
Plant material may be used in two ways as regards 
the color plan of our garden design. The first of these 
being to add color, and the second to harmonize with 
the existing architectural features. For example, the 
use of plants to add color is found in the typical English 
garden, and the use of plants to harmonize with the 
architecture is found in the gardens of Italy. Plant ma- 
terial can also be used td give an impression of quiet and 
stateliness, as illustrated by the use of plants in our cem- 
eteries. Here evergreens are often the dominating type 
of the trees used, and add a sombre color to the scene. 
In the public gardens, quantities of bright colored flowers 
will give a spirit of gaiety and recreation. 
Plant materials are classed as fixed, movable, perma- 
nent, temporary, evergreen, deciduous and seasonal. By 
fixed materials we mean the plant color that is used in 
the planting, one that will remain from season to season 
as a permanent planting. Movable materials include the 
plants that are placed about the garden, such as tub plants, 
hanging baskets or flower boxes. Temporary colors are 
those that last only a short tiiije or for a season, and thus 
include deciduous shrubs, flowers, fruit, leaves and twigs. 
The use of potted plants as an important part of the 
plant material is common in the Florentine garden. The 
variety of plants used depends upon the time of the year. 
The orangery is used as a reserve garden in this type of 
garden planting. The type of planting is of special value 
in the countries where the season for growing" plants in 
the garden is short for the situation, or light, is not 
favorable for the production of the best results. In city 
gardens, because of lack of sun, smoke, limited space, 
lack of variety of plants, this is of special value. In 
small gardens to avoid monotony caused by using one 
leaf color as a filler or a single color of flowers, it makes 
a convenient way of changing at will the entire color 
scheme of the decorative planting. Foliage plants may 
even be featured in this way and thus an entire change 
made from flowering plants. In a small garden the en- 
tire garden planting and environs may be varied in such 
a way as to secure pleasing varietv throughout the year ; 
evergreens in winter, bulbs in spring, flowering plants in 
summer, and foliage plants in fall. 
The use of temporary materials, both horticultural and 
architectural, to secure color in the garden, is one of the 
best ways to secure a good color scheme. A wide ter- 
race may be of special value because it commands a fine 
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