A bit of hardy border planted with the simplest material possible 
gave me great satisfaction during May and June this year. The border 
is a narrow one with a honeysuckle hedge as background, and in front a 
mass of crimson Sweet William. In the middle row was a clump of 
Madonna lilies and corn flowers of two shades of blue; then a Hermosa 
rose and a clump of iris, I do not know the name, of pale purple with 
greenish-tan standards. At the back the honeysuckle was in full bloom, 
part white and buff, part white tipped with pink. Many colors, but 
not one harsh note. There had been bulbs in this border for earlier 
flowering, but I plant nothing later, as it is too dry and sunny for mid- 
summer flowers. 
Isabel Van Meter Gaskins, 
Warrenton Garden Club. 
An Althea hedge pruned severely back each year and never culti- 
vated is one of the prettiest things in the garden. The bushes, deep 
pink, pale pink, pink blotched and white flowered ; in front are pink and 
yellow double hollyhocks, and in front of and among these giant flesh 
and lemon yellow zinnias; this makes an almost continuous mass of 
bloom. 
Try masses or rows of Iris, with Kochia or summer Cypress 
among them. Kochia, though an annual, seeds itself. Its pale feathery 
green with the flat blue-green of Iris is beautiful all summer, while in 
August the Kochia turns a brilliant crimson to add a fine color note. A 
few plants of snow-on-the-mountain (Euphorbia Marginata) adds to 
the rather wild beauty of this effect, and, like the Kochia, seeds itself. 
These require no care and can stand intense drought. 
Try pink Pantheon Phlox in masses with the double Gypsophilia 
among them. 
Pale yellow Viola cornuta in masses surrounding annual blue 
Larkspur, in a formal garden, with low English Box edging. 
Masses of white Nicotiana, with deep and pale blue Delphinium 
against a gray wall. 
Small rose gardens laid off, after patterns called in old English 
garden books, "Knots," filled with everblooming Baby rambler roses, 
Tausendschoen, Baby Dorothy, or that old standby, Madame Lavavas- 
seur with, in the center, a sun-dial, bird's-bath, or a so-called Gazing- 
globe with small-leafed English ivy creeping up the pedestal. Birds 
flock to these brilliant rose knots. 
White drifts of Shasta daisies with masses of scarlet Bergamot 
(Monarda Dydima). 
Mrs. Julian Keith, 
Warrenton Garden Club. 
