Colour in the flower garden

by Gertrude Jekyll

For the first seven or eight yards, in the front and middle spaces, there are plants of tender colouring—pale Primroses, Tiarella, pale yellow Daffodils, pale yellow early Iris, pale lemon Wallflower, double Arabis, white Anemones and the palest of the lilac Aubrietias; also a beautiful pale lilac Iris, one of the Caparne hybrids; with long drifts of white and pale yellow Tulips—nothing deeper in colour than the graceful Tulipa retroflexa. At the back of the border the colours are darker; purple Wallflower and the great dull red-purple double Tulip so absurdly called Bleu Celeste. These run through and among and behind the first clump of Veratrums.

THE FERN-LIKE SWEET CICELY.

THE SPRING GARDEN FROM E ON PLAN. "FURTHER ROCK" IS ON THE NEAR RIGHT HAND.

In the middle of the length of the border there is still a good proportion of tender and light colouring in front: white Primroses and Daffodils; the pale yellow Uvularia and Adonis vernalis; but with these there are stronger colours. Tulip Chrysolora of fuller yellow, yellow Wallflowers, the tall Doronicum, and, towards the back, several patches of yellow Crown Imperial.

Then again in front, with more double Arabis, is the lovely pale blue of Myosotis dissitiflora and Mertensia virginica, and, with sheets of the foam-like Tiarella, the tender pink of Dicentra eximia and pink and rose-red Tulips. At the back of this come scarlet Tulips, the stately cream-white form of Camassia Leichtlini and a bold tuft of Solomon's Seal; then Orange Tulips, brown Wallflowers, Orange Crown Imperial, and taller scarlet Tulips of the gesneriana class. The strong colouring is repeated beyond the cross-path where the patches of Acanthus are shown, with more orange Tulips, brown Wallflowers, orange Crown Imperial and great flaming scarlet gesneriana Tulips. All this shows up finely against the background of dark yew. At the extreme end, where the yew hedge returns forward at a right angle, this point is accentuated by a raised mound of triangular shape, dry-walled and slightly curved forward on the side facing the border and the spectator. On this at the back is a young plant of Yucca gloriosa for display in future years and a front planting of the large growing Euphorbia Wulfenii, one of the grandest and most pictorial of plants of recent acquirement for garden use.

The Acanthus and Yucca are of course plants of middle and late summer; between them are some Tritomas. These plants are here because one of the most often used of the garden thoroughfares passes the point C, which is a thick-roofed arch of Rose and Clematis, and, seen from this point and framed by the near greenery, they form a striking picture of middle-distant form and colour in the later summer.

The space marked Further Rock is an upward-sloping bank; the Hollies standing in rather higher ground. Here the plants are between, and tumbling over, rocky ridges. Next the large Holly, and extending to the middle of the rocky promontory, are again the strong reds and browns, with accompanying bronze-red foliage of Heuchera Richardsoni. This gives place to dark green carpeting masses of Iberis with cold-white bloom, and, nearer the path, Lithospermum prostratum; the flower-colour here changing, through white, to blue and bluish; Myosotis in front telling charmingly against the dark-leaved Lithospermum. At the highest points, next to a great crowning boulder, is the Common Blue Iris and a paler one of the beautiful Caparne series. Then down to the path where it begins to turn is a drift of the bluish lilac Phlox divaricata, and, opposite the cross-path, some jewels of the newer pale yellow Alyssum sulphureum. This rocky shoulder is also enlivened by a natural-looking but very carefully considered planting of white Tulips that run through both the blue and the red regions.

The corner marked Near Rock is also a slightly raised bank. The dark dots are cobnuts; the dotted line between is where there are garlands of Clematis montana that swing on ropes between the nuts. The garlands dip down and nearly meet the flowers of some pale pink Tree Peonies. Open spaces above the garlands and under the meeting branches of the nuts give glimpses of distant points where some little scheme has been devised to please the eye, such as the bit of bank to the left of Seat A, where there are two little fish-like drifts of palest Aubrietia in a dense grey setting of Cerastium.