210 
The Garden Magazine, December, 1923 
Frances Benjamin Johnston, Photo. 
THE BREAKFAST ARBOR 
Whose cool shade is pleasantly 
emphasized by the tiny voice 
of a brook, a “little Barranca” 
which has its source here (see 
description on opposite page.) 
will persist in selecting plants with reference to the specimen, 
instead of to the finished picture. It is a pity and quite unfair 
to this favored locality that one finds so many ragged gardens 
attractive only in spots and spasms. Continuous bloom in 
California gardens is largely a matter of forethought, careful se¬ 
lection of plant material, and cutting back at proper seasons. 
Y OUR pleasant expression, little garden, is due in no small 
degree to your hedges and groups of Eugenia myrtifolia 
placed everywhere in the background. It is the gayest garden 
friend, brilliant at all seasons, always covered with cranberry- 
colored tips, matching the berries that it carries most of the year, 
together with masses of creamy blossoms. We are very happy in 
the possession of this Wild Cherry of Australia. 
■ Oh! Here you are Pink Border! You certainly look well, 
considering that this is a period when your toilet is very shabby 
while your winter pretties are in the making. But you are not 
unattractive even now, with your groups of Geraniums, Pent- 
stemons, and Lantanas, all in the one color tone, rising back of a 
Heliotrope edging, a broad strip of lovely pastel shadings, a 
hundred and fifty feet in length. 1 am so glad we were wise 
enough not to scorn the use of ordinary perennials, that give 
such pleasing results in so trying a season. 
Your pink Bouvardias are making splendid promise for the 
winter, your Watsonias in the background are preparing for an 
early spring offering, their huge iris-like blades in rich green, al¬ 
ready standing three feet in height. The little seedlings of pink 
Stock are in their places, and other vacant spots await the pink 
Snapdragons and other annuals, while here and there, the dainty 
Nierembergia, its white bells rimmed with lavender, will relieve 
the pinks. 
Groups of Palladias are looking well, and the Cherabin is prov¬ 
ing successful in the shady background. The specimen of lovely 
pink Ruellia macrantha that we introduced last year for winter 
bloom in a shady place looks very promising, and this season will 
decide whether it may be freely used. Salvia involucrata is 
in bloom now, and since it has a beautiful winter foliage, we may 
use a little more of it next year. Here and there we must be 
sure to keep spaces open for the groups of Darwin Tulips that 
will raise their heads in early spring, when we shall cut the Helio¬ 
trope almost to the ground to give them dominance. 
Oh! You blessed old house border! Always well-groomed 
and sparkling in charming azure Agatheas, with accessories of 
Ageratum and Lobelia. How cool and restful you are on hot 
days when the eye is weary of more glowing colors. You shall 
have Blue Gem Nemesia to brighten you up by and by, and when 
the cooler days come, you will be warmed by groups of orange 
Antirrhinum of the unusual shade that the birds hybridized for 
us one year. Your high background of Erica melanthera looks 
unusually fine. Oh! You funny Buddleia speciosa! Won’t 
you ever wake up to the fact that you are a shrub, not a tree? 
Last fall, I cut you down to the very ground, and here you are 
again at the roof of my two-story house, overtopping all the 
trees, in a very ecstasy of ambition. 
You friendly bloom, nestling so close to sheltering walls, you 
are my pet border, and 1 mean to make you very gay later in the 
winter, with billowing clusters of Rosy Morn Petunias, out of 
which the tall blades of evergreen Purple King Iris shall stand 
