Choosing Flowers for Their Color 
A GUIDE TO THE TRUE SHADES AND COLORS OF VARIOUS 
FLOWERS, WITH DEFINITE SCHEMES FOR THEIR USE IN STRIK¬ 
ING COLOR EFFECTS—A GARDEN OF REDS 
by Mary Youngs 
Photographs by Nathan R. Graves 
T 
most 
must 
the 
the 
sang 
and 
H E com¬ 
pilers of 
catalogues 
belong to 
family of 
bard who 
“Most any 
color, ’s'long's 
it's red, is good 
enough for me." 
The crimes that 
are committed 
in the name of 
crimson would 
make Ananias 
blush ; scarlet is 
let oft" more 
easily, but the 
b o r derline be- 
tween scarlet 
a n d orange i s 
very wavering. 
The pestiferous Anthony Waterer spiraea is called crimson ; it is 
really a dirty light magenta. There are glowing blood-crimsons 
(Cardinal flower) ; bright blue crimsons (Prycthiunhybndum) ; 
deep black crimson (the deepest crimson, sweet william) • 1 
plain ordinary crimson (bee balm). But they are all 
called crimson “tout court,” and there are added unto 
them magentas and Tyrian purples, such as Lychinis vis- 
caria splendens, which is a truly awful color, and Troop¬ 
er's Feather (Lythreum roseum superbum), which is one 
of the good magentas, useful in combination with purple 
and white. So, here we shall make a desperate endeavor 
to keep within the borderline of real reds,’"and to describe 
each tone so that it may be recognized. 
This task is very difficult in dealing with the tulips; 
crimson so merges into scarlet, and scarlet into crimson, 
that it is almost impossible to differentiate, but the yel¬ 
lower tones prevail and the bluer ones descend into pink; 
for example, tbe early bedding tulip Proserpine is rosy 
carmine with a white center, etc., and the slightly later 
“Jenny" is a silky carmine rose, both too light for a real 
crimson. But, coming still later, in May is Couleur Car- 
diuale, described as crimson scarlet with a bluish bloom, 
which should remove it from the true scarlets and make 
it blue enough to be called crimson. Of the May flower¬ 
ing type, Fulgens is clear crimson with white center, 
Gesneriana spathulota is blood crimson, just on the 
borderline of scarlet, and one of the very best, with a 
delightful transparent quality in the sunlight. Of the 
Darwins, Professor Francis Darwin is a crimson scarlet 
with a blue base, and Whistler is a vivid maroon crimson ; 
the effect of these is a blood crimson or cardinal in the 
mass. The Parrot tulip, Cramoisie Brilliant, is a rich 
blood crimson marked with black, and, though inclined to flop over 
and lay its head in the dirt, it is very effective, especially among 
low-growing foliage. 
Even earlier than the tulips, comes the Crimson Polyanthus. 
There are various forms; some solid crimson; some delicately 
edged with a thread of gold, and some with decided borders of 
pale yellow, but in a mass, the whole effect is a good deep maroon 
crimson,and,though they are not showy,they are so early that they 
real de- 
are a 
light. There are 
m any crimson 
peonies, which 
come as near be¬ 
ing the true col¬ 
or as any flower, 
except the bee 
balm. The ear¬ 
liest peony (P- 
officinalis rubra ) 
is a bright crim¬ 
son, a trifle blue, 
but by no means 
approaching 
magenta (P. Te- 
nuifolia), which 
is a dwarf and 
sag ism* 
I 
Before a dark background of shrubbery the fine crimsons 
of the celosia (cockscomb) appear to advantage, but use 
the plumed varieties only 
Good crimson and maroon are 
found among the snapdragons 
has feathery, fennel- 
leaves ; is a fine, clear 
crimson. “Rubens” is 
a very dark crimson; 
Excelsior is an early, 
dark crimson; Gen. 
Miles is a brilliant 
light crimson, and Gro¬ 
ver Cleveland, a later 
dark one. Many other 
so-called crimson ones, 
such as Mine. Forel. 
are too blue for beauty. 
The darker shade of 
the single Pyrethrum 
Hybridum is a clear 
light blue crimson. It 
is a little difficult to 
