* 
THE 
GARDEN ALBUM 
_AND REVIEW. 
march, 1906. ~ 
SEQUENCE OF COLOURS IN A 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
The old saying “ Many men, many minds ” 
may well be taken as a garden proverb, for in 
nothing have we such infinite, and such 
beautiful variety as in the arrangement of 
gardens ; and perhaps it is partly this variety 
that makes the study so fascinating. We 
realize that every garden requires its own 
special treatment and design, not only on 
account of the differences of soil and climate, 
but also from the size and shape of the ground. 
We. soon realize also the enormous amount 
there is to learn and know about the subject, 
and that it is impossible to go into any garden, 
however small and unpretending, however 
magnificent, or however untidy, without 
learning something. There seem to be three 
distinct classes of gardeners or garden lovers 
(of course I am only speaking of flower 
gardeners): — First, the gardener who aims at 
having beautiful specimens of some particular 
flower—roses, carnations, dahlias, etc., are his 
hobby: and he devotes himself to the per¬ 
fection of his own pet flower: to such people 
we owe a deep debt of gratitude, for it is from 
them we get the improvement of special plants. 
Secondly, there is the man with the collector’s 
mania, who does not much care what his plants 
are, so long as he has all that there are to be 
had, either of one special sort or of many 
sorts : he is most useful also, as in • his garden 
we can see great variety, and we can choose 
those which we think most worth having. 
Then thirdly, there is the gardener who wishes 
to have the best and brightest effect he can 
attain all through the year, or in as much of 
the year as our English climate allows us 
to use for outdoor gardening. It is that type 
of gardener I am considering now, and who I 
hope may be interested in my few notes on 
how to attain sequence of colour in the same 
ground, by careful mixed planting of hardy 
flowers. I hope no one will think I consider 
this the only satisfactory way of planting. 
As I said before, every garden requires different 
treatment — this is only one way among many 
equally good ; but I do think it gives us more 
continuous brightness than many others, at 
very little expense; and that it might with 
advantage be employed in more gardens than 
it is at present, and in some part of every 
garden, especially near the house. 
It may be of interest to those who are 
garden lovers, to point out the sequence of 
colours which Nature provides in hardy flowers, 
which will give us a constant succession of 
bright effects in gardens of any size. 
In passing, may I mention that the most 
wonderful colour effect I have ever seen was in 
the high Alps in Switzerland, on the side of a 
rocky mountain, and formed by a mixed mass 
of dark blue gentians and purple violas,—two 
colours which we should never choose to mix ; 
the only colours I have avoided planting 
together are blue forget-me-nots and purple 
aubrietia—two shades of the same colours 
which do not blend or contrast well: while 
quite the most melancholy sight I have seen in 
a garden was a so-called blue border. I cannot 
remember where it was, but every sort of 
flower, of every shade of blue and grey was 
planted in it, and nothing else. At some times 
of the year it might have been effective, but 
when I saw it, though there were many plants 
in blossom, and all were more or less blue, 
there was neither harmony nor contrast. And 
this brings me to what I think are the two 
key-notes of Nature’s colour schemes—“ Har¬ 
mony and Contrast,” and (at the risk of being 
egotistical) I will try to show how, in the only 
garden I am able to watch from one end of the 
year to the other, Nature works out her own 
colour schemes from February till November. 
In our country, we must own with sorrow, 
that Nature’s colour scheme for December and 
January is a dull one, but even then we have 
the brilliant green of the grass, the bamboos 
are at their best and brightest, and in the 
South, where often we have so little snow and 
frost, we can generally find anemones, violets, 
and other treasures all through the winter. I 
find that by a system of mixed planting, that 
is, employing bulbs, true perennials, and 
annuals^ all planted carefully together, we can 
ensure seven distinct colour effects, between 
February and October, and at the same time 
leave plenty of space for at least one hundred 
and fifty other sorts of flowers, which I am not 
mentioning now, as they do not interfere with 
the special colour effect of their season. They 
either add to it, as being of the same colour, or 
fcfrm a mixed background, such as we often see 
in an Eastern carpet, which is composed of all 
sorts of colours, though the main colour of the 
carpet, when we first look at it, appears chiefly 
red or blue or some other prominent colour. 
A friend, referring to this paper, said, “ Tell 
us whether mixed borders are always bright by 
chance, or whether it is a matter of arrange¬ 
ment,” and I was reminded by that of a fallacy 
I met the other day, in a book which purported 
to be on gardening matters, it ran thus :—“ The 
perennials come up year by year with little 
need of help,”—so they do, and so do the 
weeds : and if the perennials come up with no 
