66 
THE GARDEN ALBUM AND REVIEW. 
SEQUENCE OF COLOURS IN A 
FLOWER GARDEN. 
(Concluded from Page 57 .) 
Our sixth Sequence brings us to August, 
one of the brightest times in the mixed borders, 
but, though we get great brightness, we cannot 
help regretting the restfulness of our July blue 
and white. August is a vulgar month, the 
world rushes about in crowds, and the garden 
cannot quite keep itself free from the prevailing 
fashion. Never do our gardens appear so full 
of flowers as in August; annuals have come 
to take the place ot the bulbs in the mixed 
borders, and there is a blaze of colour. But 
in spite of the quantity of plants, too many by 
far to mention, one colour preponderates, and 
we have gone back to the yellow with which 
we began our year. Coreopsis, Montbretias, 
Sunflowers—both annual and perennial—are 
the most prominent flowers, and the ones that 
catch our eye first—and the surface or distant 
glance at the borders, would certainly say they 
were chiefly yellow. 
But I think it is worth while trying to plant 
for small effects, as well as the general large 
one in August, for it is a month when people 
are much in gardens, and have time to notice 
these things. Last summer several beautiful 
patches formed themselves in the borders—one 
I remember in particular as wonderfully 
effective was of Salvia dulcis, which is a soft 
red, a cream coloured Linaria, and blue Linum, 
all running into each other. 
Our Sequence of colours ends in the seventh 
colour effect, which gives us in September, 
October, and generally a good part of 
November, three mourning colours—white, 
purple and yellow. Our own half-mourning 
colours, purple and white, show in the large 
white Pyrethrums, and the various purple and 
white shades of the Asters or Michaelmas 
daises, while the ancient Egyptian mourning 
colour of yellow appears in the Rudbeckias, 
Sunflowers, Heleniums, etc. Are these 
mourning colours to remind us that our year 
of garden delights is drawing to a close ?—and 
that, if we would enjoy it all again next year, 
we must harden our hearts and root out the 
overgrowth of our hardiest garden friends. 
We can either find happy homes for them in 
other gardens, or consign them to the honour¬ 
able end of a funeral pyre, that their ashes 
may fertilize the soil for their more fortunate 
brothers and sisters. 
Planting. 
And now I should like to add a few words 
about the planting of beds or borders, for on 
that all depends. I have used the word 
“ border ” chiefly, for it is the one I have 
personally most to do with, but this manner of 
planting can just as well be used in beds of 
any shape. I have once seen a large square 
lawn, enclosed in old grey walls, in front of an 
historic Elizabethan mansion—Blickling in 
Norfolk—planted in somewhat the manner I 
have described, instead of being “ bedded out,” 
and the result was beautiful beyond description. 
There are two illustrations of it in the Century 
Book of Gardening. All the effects I have 
described, and the plants I have mentioned 
(with many more) can be well and effectively 
grown in a piece of ground 8 feet by 20 feet. 
The difficulty of planting is the bulbs ; many 
people will not have them in mixed b rders, 
but I do not think we can easily spare them, 
though I should certainly leave out the Cro¬ 
cuses in any ground that is not near the house. 
They, of course, must come in front, and very 
tiresome their grass is, after they have done 
flowering—so other plants must come - close 
behind them with spreading foliage, such as 
pinks, arabis, etc., to be brought over the 
Crocuses when the flowers have passed away. 
The Tulips, Narcissi, etc., must again have 
herbaceous plants, such as Poppies, Rocket, 
Irises, etc., close to them, to take the eye off 
the unsightly leaves of the bulbs as they are 
dying away, and the annuals must be ready in 
the back garden to be planted out in June or 
early July, to take the place of the bulbs as 
soon as their foliage is dead. To get a good 
effect at all times I think we must depend on 
some special colour at each season, and take 
care to have enough of the plants we have 
chosen to catch the eye. Each year teaches us 
something fresh, and every Spring and Autumn 
we shall find something to alter and improve. 
I am afraid we must make up our minds that 
the professional gardener will never really like 
this mixed planting, though he will do it well 
if we arouse his interest in it, and he will be 
proud of it, if it is successful. But from his 
point of view, it is easier and more satisfactory 
to dig up the beds twice a year and re-plant 
them. He then knows exactly where his 
plants are. In mixed planting, on the contrary, 
we can never be quite sure, as the roots have a 
tiresome trick of transplanting themselves, and 
pushing each other about. All this, however, 
adds enormously to the interest of mixed 
borders, and accentuates what I have already 
mentioned—that they need constant watchful¬ 
ness and care, to see that each plant has space 
in which to grow. We must know (by labels 
or otherwise) where each root is planted, and 
we must be sure that it is allowed by its hardier 
brethren to keep its place, remembering that 
most perennials can be safely moved at almost 
any time of the year, if it is done with care. 
This kind of gardening is not expensive ; 
many of the most effective plants increase and 
divide so easily that we can soon get a large 
stock from a single plant. Many people lose 
really valuable plants because they do not take 
the trouble to divide them, and then they die 
away; and those that do not divide so well can 
often be easily obtained from seed, which is 
usually sown one Summer to flower the next. 
Watchfulness and forethought then, are the 
. whole secret cf successful mixed planting, and 
