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These Plants Deserve: A blaze of all the colors of the rainbow is difficult to absorb all at once: much better to group the plants in types of color, and merge each into the one adjacent to it. Pink, purple, rose, gray, lavender, blue, and lilac make one group; and yellow, cream, orange, bronze, brown, and light red another. The reds will graduate into shades of rose, lavender and so to blue; or on the opposite side into scarlet, vermilion, flame, and finally yellow. Gray-leafed and white-flowered plants will calm down the brighter colors, and mix beautifully with muted shades.
Another way of breaking up blocks of color is to introduce leafy plants. There are many species whose leaves are handsome in shape, agreeable in color and pleasing in texture. These deserve a place in the garden in their own right.
Of all the garden flowers, the annual grasses are still favorites of mine. As a group, they are rarely grown for their foliage, which, except for the ornamental corns, looks weedy at best. Instead grasses are grown for the endless variety of their flowers and seed heads. Whether we plant them to relieve our dependence on the typical bedding annuals or to gather and dry them for winter decorations, these plants deserve a place in many more gardens.
As a general rule, these plants need a position with full summer sun for adequate growth and flowering, but they are not too fussy about soil conditions. As long as the soil drains and is capable of supporting a good crop of weeds, the annual grasses should do well.
FOR CULTURAL reasons, some plants need a special environment: many alpines need a rockery, scree bed or Sink garden, while bog plants require damp soil and aquatic plants depend on water. In a small backyard, you may not have room for more than a few plants of each type. |
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