440 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May SO, 18$». 
The damp cold summer of 1888 was unfavourable to their growth and 
the development of fruit buds.” 
-The Tibshelf Floral, Horticultural, and Eose 
Society’s fourteenth Exhibition will be held on Tuesday, July 23rd, 
this year in the Colliery cricket ground, when prizes to the amount of 
-.£280 will be offered. The schedule is a comprehensive one, including 
189 classes. Roses are especially well provided for, classes for seventy- 
two and forty-eight blooms being enumerated, with prizes ranging 
from £6 to 10s. In most of the other classes the prizes are small, from 
Us. to Is. The Veitch Memorial prize and medal are offered for the 
best group of plants (in class 24) to cover a space of 160 square feet, 
seven prizes being given in the same class—namely, £10, £8, £6, £4, 
£3, £2, and £1. The Secretary is Mr. E. Harrison, Tibshelf, near 
Alfreton. 
- Mr. William Maybury writes from East Kent on 
Sparrows and Gooseberries Mr. Walter Kruse’s experience 
regarding the destructive nature of the sparrows this spring is not an 
isolated case. We were prepared to lose some buds, but escaped until 
the Gooseberries commenced blooming. The birds played havoc with 
the fruit, nipping the ends off either for the honey or from mischief, the 
berries afterwards dropping. We managed to save a fair crop by twist¬ 
ing worsted thickly aboiit the bushes. Of course, it would not be 
practicable from a market point of view, where acres are grown, but as 
shooting was prohibited we had to make the best of it. Certainly the 
sparrows are not considered friends by the majority of growers in this 
district if one is allowed to judge by the amount of shooting carried on 
this winter and early spring. Caterpillars are numerous in places, 
ground hellebore powder being freely used by several large growers. 
Taken altogether the crops will not be so heavy as was first ex¬ 
pected.” 
-Rain and Floods. —The rain which we have had in such 
ample measure in London seems to have been pretty general over the 
country. In the metropolis the total fall for about thirty hours was 
fully equal to the usual amount for the whole of May. The report 
issued by the Meteorological Office shows that very large amounts were 
also measured at other places in the south-east and midland districts of 
England. At Hurst Castle the measurement in the twenty-four hours 
was 1‘65 inch, which is about equal to the usual total for May, and at 
Dxford the fall was 1'43 inch, whilst at Loughborough, in Leicestershire, 
0'70 inch was measured. For the second time in a fortnight the low- 
lying lands around the town of Leighton Buzzard were submerged, the 
streams having overflown, as the result of the torrents of rain which 
fell throughout the whole of Sunday night and Monday morning. Roads 
were rendered impassable. The flood has caused great damage to the 
growing grass, which was almost ready for the scythe, beating it down, 
and covering it with a sediment washed out from the streams. Such a 
deluge has not been experienced in the district for years. The heaviest 
rainfall experienced in West Berks for some years past occurred on 
Sunday night, when there was a continuous downpour for some hours. 
The rain gauges registered 3 inches. 
ARRANGING COLOURS. 
“ J- B.” wishes to “ know all about the arrangement of colours, 
scientific and otherwise,” whatever that may mean. Perhaps the 
following remarks by a gardener who had devoted attention to the 
subject may be helpful:— 
“ Judging from the way colours are occasionally arranged, some 
gardeners must be specially defective either in the perception of 
colour, or have not put themselves to the trouble of observing what 
■combinations are pleasing, or of studying how to avoid blundering 
in colour arrangements. Flowers are bright and beautiful things 
the leafy colours of many plants are capable of producing pictures 
lit to rank as real works of art ; but the brightness of the flowers 
and gaiety of the coloured leaves often enough—indeed oftener 
than is pleasant to educated eyes—illustrate how even the beautiful 
can actually be made hideous. Doubtless a greater number, especi¬ 
ally among the younger members of the craft, will be glad of a few 
hints that may at least serve to call attention to a much-needed 
though neglected phase of a gardener’s education. 
“ Green is of itself naturally pleasing, and relieves the eye that 
is accustomed to brick-coloured streets, dusty smoky roads, or 
gaudy colours. Indeed, bright colours pain the eye, green soothes 
it, and relief has often to be found in green spectacles. It is not 
half so much the brightness of the flower, which Nature, indeed, 
furnishes with comparative scarcity, that is the charm of the 
country. It may be doubted if the best-planted parterre ever seen 
is capable of yielding so much soothing pleasure as a bright green 
smooth lawn on which handsome green shrubs are tastefully 
arranged, with a park well timbered with grand trees beyond. 
Nevertheless, colours properly arranged in pictures, in tapestry, 
dresses, or in gardens are capable of giving exquisite pleasure, and 
really do so to thousands. If only all were arranged according to 
correct principles, this pleasure could be greatly augmented, and 
the beholders and flower gardeners alike refined. 
“ It is curious to see how popular anything red in a garden is, 
and how despised is yellow ; though partly because of the necessity 
for variety, partly because of the ease with which many yellow- 
flowered and yellow-leaved plants are grown, yellow is very plenti¬ 
fully employed. The reason is that the red of the Pelargoniums, 
Coleuses, Iresines, Alternantheras, and even red Beet complements 
the green which everywhere so preponderates, while the yellow is 
really about the worst to associate with green, although it is often 
employed in beds as edgings next the green grass in the form of 
Golden Feather. But yellow separated from the grass with a good 
band of white, which is neutral and hardly ever wrong—and com¬ 
plemented with the shade of violet or plum that best complements 
the particular shade of yellow employed, really is as beautiful as 
the pleasing pink and scarlet that claim all the praise of those not 
possessed of an artist’s eye and an artist’s education. It is very 
seldom indeed that blue is properly employed, simply because it 
must be placed next white or orange to make a proper contrast, or 
beside a greenish blue or a bluish purple to make a pleasing 
harmony. 
“ The colours and shades named are not a tithe of those at the 
command of the garden artist, but all shades whatever are capable 
of being arranged pleasingly or otherwise, not only as contrasts but 
as harmonies. The rainbow is the most perfect example of a 
harmony, and it will be seen in studying its colour arrangements 
that the one shade passes gradually into the other, producing thus 
a most pleasing whole. To some tastes harmonies are most 
pleasing ; to others contrasts afford most pleasure. Possibly the 
extent to which the holder possesses the perception of colour 
determines which pleases most. One possessed with a keenly 
sensitive eye generally takes pleasure in gentle harmonies ; when 
the perception of colour is not acute contrasts may be best. In 
this way gardeners have an opportunity of showing how much their 
desire to please is ; but can only know how best to arrange the 
colours in the beds when they know what is most likely to please. 
Still, in a general way, it may be said that harmonies look best 
when close at hand ; contrasts when some distance off. Much 
depends on whether the beds are close to the window or otherwise. 
Sometimes parterres may be planted on both principles. Even 
single beds and borders may be so planted. 
“ The simplest way of ascertaining what colour is likely to best 
match any other colour is to consider that there are three colours 
only, and that the rest are the produce of these mixed in different 
proportions. Those who wish to be scientific might easily preach 
a long sermon to prove this statement wrong without anyone being 
the wiser ; but the tyro will not go far wrong if he starts with such 
an assumption, especially if he knows nothing of the subject and 
blunders accordingly. 
“ The colours, which may be here called primary, are red, blue, 
and yellow. The secondary colours are purple (formed by mixing 
red and blue), green (formed by mixing blue and yellow), and 
orange (formed by mixing yellow and red). There are also tertiary 
colours, such as scarlet, which is red with a tinge of yellow in it, 
and plum, which is blue with a tinge of red in it, and so on, but so 
deep into the subject we cannot at present go. Now, as an invariable 
rule, primaries always look bad beside each other and the secondaries 
derived from them. Thus, red beside blue, or blue beside yellow, 
is unbearable. Equally vulgar is yellow beside green or orange, 
both of which have yellow in their composition. But any primary 
makes a pleasing complement with any secondary formed from any 
of the other two primaries. Thus red (a primary) is complemented 
with green, a secondary formed from yellow and blue, the other two 
primaries. Blue is complemented by orange, and yellow by purple 
or violet. 
“ If the shade of orange should be nearer yellow than a real 
orange its complement will necessarily incline in the same degree 
to purple. If the red should have a tinge of yellow the green 
should be as dark as possible, or even have a tinge of blue in it, 
and so on. The subject is infinite. As a study in harmony the 
rainbow is perfection, and the nearer the approach to that the 
nearer perfection. 
“ White is most useful in harmonising or clashing colours, which 
may often be made at least tolerable by having a band of white 
interposed between them, and is by itself a capital lightener of an 
otherwise too heavy arrangement. While hints may be given, and 
