THE GARDEN ALBUM AND REVIEW. 
01 
SEQUENCE OF COLOURS IN A 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
(Continued from Page 33.) 
Now to start with our sequence of colours in 
February: The prevailing note both at the 
beginning and end of the year is yellow—we 
begin then with Crocuses—and the yellow ones 
are the first to come out, and, to my mind, 
much the most effective and cheering at a very 
dull time of year. With them we may have 
Snowdrops, and some of the early Irises, and 
all these may be planted close to other things, 
and if planted deep enough, will not interfere 
with later effects. Broad borders of yellow 
Crocuses, eight inches wide, may be planted 
round any beds or borders that we are 
proposing to fill with any mixed flowers, 
especially where we shall see them from the 
windows, and if we want a contrast, we can 
plant early Scillas and Chionodoxas near them. 
March and April give us Nature’s second 
colour scheme, but the prevailing tone is still 
yellow and white, as exemplified in all the 
different Daffodils, Jonquils, Wallflowers, 
Doronicum, Yellow Alyssum, Polyanthus, etc., 
all harmonizing with the white Arabis, white 
and yellow Hyacinths and Tulips ; and con¬ 
trasting with the various other coloured 
Hyacinths and Tulips, scarlet Anemones, blue 
Forget-me-nots, and purple Aubrietia. As I 
said before, be careful not to plant the two 
latter near together ; personally, I should keep 
Forget-me-nots altogether out of mixed beds or 
borders. 
Our third effect brings us to May, and 
though we are now dazzled with the wealth of 
colour Nature provides, and the innumerable 
plants she offers us, we can still see a prevailing 
scheme—it is a more varied one—she seems to 
fall in with our National colours, and the red, 
blue, and white of our Union Jack are repro¬ 
duced in our gardens. May I be personal and 
say, that for nothing am I more grateful to a 
predecessor here than for the masses of May 
flowering tulips of various shades of red, which 
he planted in our borders. I do not think 
these Tulips have yet had the attention they 
deserve from gardeners, though they are now 
often written about and praised in garden 
papers. Pheasant-eyed and other Narcissi 
provide the white, and the blue is very plenti¬ 
fully offered in Scillas, Irises, Veronica 
gentianoides, Centaurea Cyanus, and the Flax 
Plant. 
June, the month of Roses, as it has been 
called, but we cannot concern ourselves with 
Roses now—brings us our fourth colour effect 
—a great mass of red, in the Oriental 
Poppies and the scarlet Lychnis, with them we 
have the contrast of the white double Rocket, 
later German Irises, which are chiefly yellow 
and white, white Pinks and Spiraeas. There 
are many other flowers in bloom—Campanulas, 
etc.—but they are the undertone which only 
act as a background to the mass of scarlet and 
white. And here I must own with sorrow, 
that Nature is occasionally inconsiderate, and 
that in some years she brings out some of the 
Scarlet Poppies, before she clears away all the 
Red Tulips, and that the two colours do not 
harmonize. If we have sufficient strength of 
mind, we should cut away the blossoms of one 
or the other, but it is hard to do so. 
July gives us quite a change of scene—red 
retires into the background, though we are 
reminded that there is such a colour by the 
Lychnis, which goes on flowering for some 
time, and by the annual scarlet Linum or 
Flax, which may be in flower this month. 
But the colours Nature means us to cultivate 
in our gardens in July, are, undoubtedly, blue 
and white. The stately Delphiniums now 
appear in different shades of blue, all har¬ 
monizing well together, endless Campanulas, 
both blue and white, claim a prominent posi¬ 
tion, Canterbury Bells flourish in both colours, 
and crown of the year, the white Madonna 
Lilies, ought to be near the Delphiniums, to 
contrast with them. I say “ ought ” because 
we all know that an insidious disease has 
marked these lilies for its own, and that it is 
very difficult to grow them well. But they 
are worth a struggle to preserve, even if some 
years many of our most promising clumps go 
blind, and disappoint us. There is, to my 
mind, something especially striking in the 
July borders—there may not be so many 
plants in blossom as at some other times of the 
year, but those that there are, are particularly 
beautiful ones, and perhaps extra precious from 
the preponderance of blue, which is not a very 
common colour in our English gardens. Let 
us then keep blue and white prominently 
before our minds in thinking out our July 
effects, but if we aspire to a blue border, let us 
plant it with the utmost care. It is a matter 
of extreme difficulty, and I think would require 
many sleepless nights, and much deep thought, 
to do it really well. The difficulty lies in the 
many different shades of blue, which seem to 
take the colour out of each other when mixed 
carelessly, and without contrasting colours to 
take off from the sickly shade of some of the 
grey blues. These grey blues, such as love-in- 
the-mist, are beautiful in themselves, and if 
they can be seen alone, or with a contrasting 
background, but their colour turns into a sickly 
shade if seen at the same time as a dark blue 
Delphinium, or other strong coloured blue 
flower, and many of the blues look grey or 
even dirty white, if there is no strong contrast 
near them—at least so it has appeared to me. 
E. M. Hill, F.R.H.S. 
(To be Continued). 
Daffodil “ Mrs. Robt. Sydenham.”— This 
is the name of a beautiful creamy white trumpet 
Daffodil recently shown by Miss Currey, 
Lismore, Ireland. The flowers are large and 
well-proportioned, the cylindrical tube being 
particularly fine. 
