March, 19 2 3 
87 
The perennial border that contains a goodly quantity of light colored flowers, can be depended 
upon to give a gay effect. In the garden of Mrs. K. Walbridge, Short Hills, N. Jlight colors 
have been effectively placed in the border 
MAKING A PERENNIAL BORDER 
Perrett 
A Planting Plan Designed for Succession of Color 
Is the Prime Essential 
T HE planning of a long perennial 
border, or of any shaped herbaceous 
border, is a many-sided problem; its 
complexities are so intimately connected 
that as each in turn is faced, the others 
appear on every side and cannot be ignored. 
It is comparatively easy to work out a 
scheme of color in theory, to decide that 
blue shall be here, yellow there, and crim¬ 
son elsewhere with judicious blendings of 
intermediate shades. But practical knowl¬ 
edge and experience must translate these 
decisions into plants and varieties. The 
actual colors and their association are 
largely a question of personal taste, but to 
obtain them as imagination sees them in¬ 
volves a knowledge of flowering seasons, of 
heights and shapes and manner of growth, 
not to mention the subtleties of hue un¬ 
revealed bv the catalogue and dictionarv. 
Many of the flowers which make up the 
border, considered individually, may w T ell 
claim to deserve a special bed or garden for 
themselves where their full perfection of 
beauty can be revealed; peonies, irises, 
lupins, phloxes, and many others are of this 
number, but since few people have space 
for these ideal conditions there is compensa¬ 
tion in the many beautiful effects which can 
be made by combining flowers of different 
type and habit apart from the mere question 
of color. The feathery plumes of spiraea 
make an ideal background for the velvety 
spires of a dark crimson snapdragon or the 
clear cut outline of an iris. The gray 
blue austerity of the globe thistle in contrast 
with the narrow downy foliage and intense 
carmine flowers of the rose campion, the 
clear color and fragile petals of long 
stemmed poppies—an infinity of varia¬ 
tions can be suggested. In fact it is impos¬ 
sible to attempt color grouping successfully 
and to neglect this important aspect. (The 
effectiveness of plants both for color and 
form at long and short range was dealt with 
in a previous article.) 
It is not difficult in a long border to have 
something in flower through most of the 
garden, but it requires more skill to con¬ 
trive that this shall be no mere spasmodic 
patchwork but a regular sequence of color 
throughout the border. Some people find 
it simplest to concentrate upon certain 
seasons, and are content to wait through a 
quiet interim between one brilliant display, 
say in early summer and another in the 
autumn. But a more ambitious gardener 
will aim at a continuous effect, which needs 
more thought and perhaps some sacrifice 
of brilliance. Large masses of one plant 
will be more difficult to handle, as the 
problem must be faced of the correspond¬ 
ingly large area of barren stem when the 
flowers are over. This difficulty must not 
be shirked for it is perhaps hardly necessary 
to state that broad masses should always 
l^e planted rather than single specimens. 
Plants with fine foliage, small evergreens 
and gray-leaved plants, these are always 
useful as they give value to gayer plants. 
Bulbs may be used in numbers; they can 
be lifted after flowering to ripen their leaves 
elsewhere and their places filled by annuals 
or half-hardy plants held in readiness for 
the time when they are needed. A pinch 
of seed of some flower which will not bear 
transplanting—such as nigella and shirley 
. poppies—may be sown in a small vacant 
spot, where, as the surrounding flowers die 
down, the seedlings will have room to 
(Continued on page 146) 
