It is only a question of selection, for the kinds are now so many and the colourings so various that there are China Asters to suit all tastes and uses. My own liking is for those of the pure violet-purple and lavender colours, with whites; and to plants with these clear, clean tints my Aster garden is restricted. In other places I grow some of the tenderer pinks, a good blood-red, and a clear pale yellow; but these are kept quite away from the purples. The kinds chosen are within the Giant Comet, Ostrich Plume and Victoria classes—all plants with long-stalked bloom and a rather free habit of growth. For some years I was much hindered from getting the colours I wanted from the inaccurate way in which they are described in seed-lists. Finally I paid a visit to the trial-grounds of one of our premier seed-houses, and saw all the kinds and the colourings and made my own notes. I cannot but think that a correct description of the colours, instead of a fanciful one, would help both customer and seed-merchant. As it is, the customer, in order to get the desired flowers, has to learn a code. I have often observed, in comparing French and English seed-lists, that the French do their best to describe colours accurately, but that the English use some wording which does not describe the colour, but appears to be intended as a complimentary euphemism. Thus, if I want a Giant Comet of that beautiful pale silvery lavender, perhaps the loveliest colour of which a China Aster is capable, I have to ask for "azure blue." If I want a full lilac, I must order "blue"; if a full purple it is "dark blue." If I want a strong, rich violet-purple, I must beware of asking for purple, for I shall get a terrible magenta such as one year spoilt the whole colour-scheme of my Aster garden. It is not as if the right colour-words were wanting, for the language is rich in them—violet, lavender, lilac, mauve, purple;—these, with slight additions, will serve to describe the whole of the colourings falsely called blue. The word blue should not be used at all in connexion with these flowers. There are no blue China Asters.
The diagram shows a simple arrangement for a little garden of China Asters of the purple and white colourings. The seed-list names are used in order to identify the sorts recommended. A Lavender hedge surrounds the whole; the paths are edged with Stachys lanata. Taking Messrs. Sutton's list and translating into colour-words as usually understood, the tints are:
| Azure blue | Tender pale lavender-lilac. |
| Blue | Light purple. |
| Dark blue | Rich dark purple. |
I am very glad to learn that Messrs. Sutton have in contemplation a revision of some of these puzzling colour-names.
PLAN OF A SMALL GARDEN OF CHINA ASTERS.
CHAPTER IX
THE FLOWER BORDERS IN SEPTEMBER
The main flower border shows in September much the same aspect as in August. But early in the month the middle mass of strong colouring, enhanced by Tritomas and the fuller bloom of Dahlias, is at its brightest. The bold masses of Canna foliage have also grown up and show their intended effect. They form one of the highest points in the border. No attempt is made to keep all the back-row plants standing high; on the contrary, many that would be the tallest are pulled down to do colour-work of medium height. The effect is much more pictorial when the plants at the back rise only here and there to a height of nine or ten feet; mounting gradually and by no means at equal distances, but somewhat as the forms of greater altitude rise in the ridge of a mountain range. The diagram shows how it comes in the case of my own border in September. (See p. 52.)
Rather near the front, the bushy masses of Gypsophila, that a month ago were silvery grey, have now turned to a brownish colour. They are partly covered with trailing Nasturtiums, but the portions of brown cloud that remain tone well with the rich reds that are near them. In the back of this region dark claret and blood-red Hollyhocks still show colour, and scarlet Dahlias are a mass of gorgeous bloom. Their nearest neighbours are tall flaming Tritomas with, in front of them, one of the dwarfer Tritomas that is crowded with its orange-scarlet flowers of a rather softer tone. Then come scarlet Gladiolus, a wide group of a splendid red Pentstemon, and, to the front, an edging and partly carpeting mass of a good, short-growing form of Salvia splendens.