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MAKING GOOD USE OF MAGENTA 
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ELEANOR CABOT BRADLEY 
Landscape Architect 
Up 
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Planting a Garden of Color Harmonies in Popular Flowers where the 
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Much-Maligned Magenta Strikes the Keynote from April to December 
TPfcSgllTH delightful inconsistency we choke driveways and 
Wkjh foundation plantings with Rhododendrons, falling into 
|transports over the magnificent floral display of June, 
iZkffiX and quite forgetting that even in the flowers of the 
hybrids the predominant tone is magenta. Magenta! The 
very name causes a thrill of horror in the heart of any “edu¬ 
cated” garden lover. Only in cottage gardens we are told— 
where the thoughts of color harmonies do not intrude—may 
that color be employed. “ But,” you say, with a superior smile, 
“magenta is always good in isolation.” That magenta is also 
good in combination 1 mean to prove—it only depends on how 
you combine it. To a true garden lover who loves and lives 
among her flowers, no color is ugly and no plant too mean—it 
is merely a question of situation and grouping. 
Before we can attempt to combine magenta intelligently, we 
must first analyze the color. The true magenta is a deep 
bluish pink as distinguished from the yellow pinks of the salmon 
and coral colored flowers, favored of garden lovers. If then 
you confine yourself to the flowers whose color has a tinge of 
blue, you avoid discords. By this, I mean the lemon yellows, 
orchids, mauves, lavenders, lilacs and pale blues in addition to 
all shades of magenta. 
My magenta garden forms a connecting link between the rose 
garden and the raspberry patch, a long narrow strip shaded 
at both ends. A row of Willows stands about fifteen feet 
beyond the hedge of rugosa Roses with their pale magenta 
blossoms; between these trees and the hedge are several 
Judas-trees or Red-bud (Cercis canadensis), lovers of shade and 
moisture, whose every twig in the early spring is clothed with 
tiny pea-like blossoms of pale magenta pink. On the right, 
in a sunny nook between the hedge and the Raspberries, the 
tall Empress-tree (Paulownia imperialis or tomentosa) lifts 
spikes of pinkish lavender flowers in July seen at their best 
against the background of the distant Willows, and in front a 
group of Rose-of-Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) give an abundance 
of magenta bloom. Along either side of the path to the rasp¬ 
berry garden are masses of the common Sweetbrier (Rosa 
rubiginosa), of Spirea Anthony Waterer, and of the Thornless 
Wild Rose (Rosa blanda) continuing the same color. 
The large semicircular end of the garden is crossed by the 
central axis of the rose garden and leads to the raspberry patch. 
It is also connected by means of woodland paths with the upper 
garden. Here the change in elevation is taken care of by a low 
retaining wall of rough field stone. On the top of the wall 
shrubs of arching habit such as the Large-flowered Raspberry 
(Rubus odoratus) and the Prairie Rose (Rosa setigera), throw 
out long magenta-laden sprays of flowers. At the base of the 
wall we find the little native Rhodora (Azalea canadense) with 
tiny magenta flowers appearing in April, the first of the Azaleas 
to bloom. Here also in a sheltered nook flourishes the tender 
Azalea amoena whose soft magenta flowers blend well with 
the pale yellows of Azalea mollis. Some day we hope to find 
a place for the new and rare Azaleas rhombicum and pouk- 
hanense whose lilac and magenta flowers may be seen at the 
Arnold Arboretum in early May. Other members of the Heath 
family, such as the dwarf Rhododendron myrtifolium, the new 
Rhododendron mucronulatum, and our native Rhododendron 
catawbiense may well be planted here and the whole bordered 
with such tender relatives as the Mountain Heath (Leiophyllum 
prostratum) and the Mediterranean Heather (Erica carnea). 
Among the Azaleas stand Lilies which repeat the same tones 
of color, as Lilium rubellum, Lilium martagon (dalmaticum) 
and Lilium speciosum rubrum. We might also add the gor¬ 
geous Chinese Lily, Lilium regale, whose fragrant white flowers 
are exquisitely shaded with blended tones of pinkish buff and 
primrose yellow; and the dainty Lilium japonicum roseum, 
which is, however, rather tender for this northern latitude. 
In the garden proper, the paths are grass and the beds 
slightly raised by means of a rough stone curbing with open 
joints in which are set some of the dwarf rock-loving plants 
A GARDEN WHERE MAGENTA STRIKES THE KEY-NOTE 
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