e border bright until the latter part of June, when
alternating groups of field daisies and pink and red sweet williams are
in full bloom at one end of the border, and summer-flowering cosmos
holds sway at the other end, while the flax, bachelor's buttons and
daisies fill the center with blue and white. By the middle of July the
calendulas, coreopsis and annual larkspur make a vivid display where the
narcissus was before. These four make a very good combination, for if
the bed is well made and the narcissus planted deep, the coreopsis and
larkspur seed themselves, and with the exception of a deep raking in the
late fall the bed needs no attention except thinning out for three
years, and it is in bloom for at least four months of the season.

[Illustration: Pink and white pinks, field and Shasta daisies,
canterbury bells and hollyhocks.]

In this border I have at last found a place for the magenta phlox that
usually fights with the whole garden. I put it in front of a single row
of pink and white cosmos, flank it on one side with pink and white
verbenas, on the other with mixed scabiosas and in front of all a single
row of Shasta daisies. This combination pleases the family as well as
the phlox.

On the south side of the garden, against a low buckthorn hedge is a
narrower border of sky-blue belladonna, delphinium, buttercups and
achillea, with an edging of Chinese pinks. I had thought the
complementary colors of the delphinium and buttercups would set each
other off, but it is a very poor combination, for the foliage is so much
alike that there is no contrast there, and when the plants are not in
bloom it is almost impossible to tell which is which so as to take out
the buttercups, whose yellow is too bright. Shasta daisies set off the
delphiniums to perfection with the wonderful purity of their white and
yellow and pleasing contrast of form, foliage and height. With Emperor
narcissus bulbs set between the plants, there are flowers in the border
the whole season.

Another very poor combination that is in my garden, much to my sorrow,
is hemerocallis and siberica iris. They started out about three feet
from each other, but the hemerocallis spreads so quickly that now they
form a mass that is almost impossible to break apart. Another mistake I
made was to put Shasta daisies and field daisies near together. It is
unfair to the smaller daisies, for although they are fully two inches in
diameter, yet they appear dwarfed b