Two were found whose value can hardly be over-estimated. One is a 
variety of the common Sage with purple-tinged leaves; the other is 
"^'Heuchera Richardsoni, the Satin Leaf, so called because the young 
foliage, suffused with reddish-brown, and just in young perfection in 
April, has a satin-like lustre. These two plants are rather freely used, 
for the most part in diagonal drifts, but also singly, out-lying, as the 
planting may require. *The Purple Sage is a charming accompaniment 
to anything of pink or purple coloring, and the Heuchera has proved 
an admirable setting for the further plants where the coloring is of 
scarlet, orange and wall flower brown. 
To give a general survey of the arrangement, it begins with the 
double white Arabis in front, followed by Aubrietia of pale and deep 
purple; they are not at the front edge only, but also swing back a 
little way into the depth of the border. I have found, in all border 
arrangement, that, as a general rule, it is better to plant in what it is 
convenient to call "drifts," running more or less diagonally with the 
line of the path, rather than in patches of more solid shape. For one 
thing the whole drift is better displayed as one passes along, and then 
by having them in this form, when the bloom of one kind is over, it is 
more easily concealed by the flowers of its neighbors on either side. 
My drifts are anything from five to ten feet long and a little thicker 
in the middle. The diagram shows their general form and disposition. 
To return to the flowers, at the near end there are Daffodils and 
White TuUps, inter-planted and sometimes carpeted, with Forget- 
me-not and white and yellow bunch Primroses, and early Irises, both 
purple and cream white, in a framing of the Purple Sage, with purple 
Wallflower and a fine form of dark purple Honesty (Lunaria biennis) 
at the back. The Wallflower is repeated after a big drift of the Prim- 
roses, and now comes one of the groups of the Veratrum, Quite at the 
back there are some patches of the stately Crown Imperial *{FritiUaria 
imperialis), the sulphur colored one. The diagram shows how the 
Purple Sage is used with the Tulips, the early pink Rosamundi, 
followed by the taller Clara Butt, a flower whose quiet pink coloring 
accords most charmingly with that of the Sage. Here there is a front 
edging of the purple-leaved form of the native *Ajuga reptans, broken 
by a few plants of Aubrietia which make a pleasant repetition of the 
color of the earlier, larger group. The color now changes to the richer 
yellow of Doronicum plantaginium, with yellow Tulips and still some 
purple Iris in the middle, and Viola gracilis in the front. Now the 
main "between plant" is the Heuchera as the yellow flowers deepen 
to orange, with orange Crown Imperials at the back and Tulips such 
as Thomas Moore, followed by La Merveille, all with a liberal inter- 
planting of brown Wallflower. This leads to the strong reds of the 
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