CHAPTER X 
BLUE GARDENS 
Description of natural blue gardens — Of a carefully thought- 
out garden — A blue terrace border — Names of suitable 
plants. 
Nature, the first gardener of all, has given us 
wonderful examples ; it would be difficult to rival, 
impossible to surpass, such pictures as a glade 
of bluebells in spring, rising from a background 
of filmy fern, and the pale and tender green of 
young birch leaves. Or, in other countries 
than our own, azure carpets of Anemone blanda , 
melting into the blues of a Grecian sky, or the 
gentian-covered slopes of the Swiss Alps. 
Still, a very beautiful effect may be attained 
where advantage is taken of the natural features 
of the garden to be planned. For instance, 
take a garden where all the hydrangeas come 
blue, from china shades to a rich lapis-lazuli. 
Here the scenery is generally that of moun- 
tain and lake, or sea ; or at any rate the back- 
ground or view can be sometimes of blue hills 
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