A modest purple and gold garden in which a border of yellow snapdragons and yellow asters is effectively 
framed in by a background of gray-foliaged shrubs and trees 
AN ALL-SUMMER COLOR SCHEME ADAPTABLE TO BOTH SMALL AND LARGE PLACES—HOW TO 
CHOOSE THE RIGHT TINTS FROM NATURE’S PALETTE—A TABLE OF SUCCESSIONS TO GUIDE YOU 
Elizabeth Leonard Strang 
P hotographs by Mary H. Northend 
T HE purple-and-gold garden will be purple and gold from 
early spring until late fall. And by purple I mean a true 
royal purple, not a magenta, though some of the flowers are 
lavender and violet-red. By gold I mean, in this instance, clear, 
light, soft yellow and a deep, true yellow—not orange or tawny 
yellow. 
Let us suppose in this instance that the owner of a small city 
lot 50 feet by 120 feet has a mass of shrubs around the boundaries 
of the property and wishes to assemble in front of them a purple 
and gold succession of flowers. The foliage of the shrubs might 
be silvery gray, in order to en¬ 
hance the brightness of the 
flowers. These gray shrubs 
would be Sali.v regalis, or royal 
willow, really a tree; Sali. r ros- 
marinifolius, rosemary - leaved 
willow, a shrub with narrow, 
gray leaves; eleagnus, Hippo- 
phae, and tamarisk. Other shrubs 
will contribute directly to the 
purple-and-gold scheme. 
In late March or April will be 
the yellow blossoms of Cornus 
mas, and a little later the for- 
sythia will contribute a still 
deeper yellow. At this time 
purple and gold crocus will be 
blooming in groups at the base 
of the shrubs, and purple violets 
will be in the grass. Later in 
April will come purple and 
yellow tulips and the daffodils. 
The named varieties of these are 
mentioned in the special list. 
In May we will have among 
the shrubs Azalea mollis and the 
deep purple lilac Charles X. A 
few yellow and lavender Darwin 
tulips and some clear yellow and deep purple iris can be in front 
of the shrubs. 
In June the Clematis Jackmanni, deep purple; Harrison’s yel¬ 
low, the yellow tassels of the laburnum, the old-fashioned rose 
that we all love, yellow columbine and lemon lily, with the 
lavender Phlox Arendsii Helene will be enough to give the color. 
In July a Kohlreuteria or varnish tree will have a delicate 
yellow blossom which lasts nearly six weeks; Anthemis tinetoria 
will give a huge cluster of brilliant, yellow, daisy-like flowers 
on fern-like foliage; and phlox Modesty a rosy purple. 
In August Lilinm auratum, or 
gold-banded lily, will come into 
bloom, the anthemis is still at¬ 
tractive, and Phlox Crepuscnle , 
with deep purple center and pale 
lavender edge, will make a softer 
combination than is found in 
some of the other months. 
In September and October 
quantities of purple New Eng¬ 
land asters and the Helenium 
autumnale, a glowing yellow, 
will form a gorgeous climax for 
the season, for the tiny yellow- 
button chrysanthemums in No¬ 
vember are merely a cheerful 
note. 
_Now let us assume that a 
more elaborate garden is desired 
(Fig. 2). This shows a little 
square garden 25 feet by 25 feet 
in the sunny angle of the house 
with a flower border 35 feet long 
leading from it and terminating 
in a little statue. The garden 
might be built without the flower 
border, or the border should lead 
directly from one of the rooms 
A more pretentious purple and gold garden, where purple and lavender phlox 
contrast effectively with the rich gold of the Anthemis tinetoria 
430 
