162 SUBURBAN GARDENS 
simple reason that the flowers which would 
furnish unhappy combinations of color do not 
blossom at the same time. Take this into con- 
sideration in selecting and ordering — and side- 
step the question altogether if you feel it is too 
perplexing. 
It really need not be perplexing, however, 
even with all its nice distinctions. Do they 
seem too nice? And does the garden planting 
seem an appalling task with so much to be kept 
in mind? Actually it is much simpler worked 
out in the way suggested than any haphazard 
thrusting in here and there of this and that 
can ever be; for nothing is harder work or 
more confusing than trying to plant flowers in 
this way. And the distinctions, far from be- 
ing overly nice, are perfectly obvious when the 
idea begins to take shape — and color — out- 
doors in the garden. 
The diagrams appended, and more especially 
the plant lists, are intended as first aid to the 
beginner of a rather more direct nature than 
it is possible to furnish in any other section of 
selective garden work. To annuals compara- 
tively little space has been given; but raising 
annual flowers is hardly gardening in the true 
sense — in the lasting sense which we are con- 
sidering here. And as the tendency is toward 
