Choosing Stunning Colour Combinations For Your Garden

Spring top 5

1. Akebia quinata Few climbers provide such fresh-looking foliage so early in the season, and the vivid green makes a lovely backdrop to dark purple-red blooms. Shelter is needed to avoid late frosts doing their worst.

2. Berberis thunbergii 'Red Chief' Startlingly deep-colored leaves can be used to make a striking contrast to numerous spring bulbs, particularly as the arching branches are excellent for showing off the tall stems of daffodils and tulips.

3. Crocus Many of these easy spring beauties have globes of gleaming, rich purple flowers.

4. Sambucus nigra 'Black Beauty' The dark purple leaves of this elder look lovely with a skirt of pale spring bulbs beneath. Later, clusters of pinky purple flowers create a self- contained harmony.

5. Viola riviniana Purpurea Group Color contrasts can work right down to the smallest plant, and little clumps of the purple- leaved violet will thrive almost anywhere, even in dry shade.

Purple and lime green

Alchemilla mollis An easy plant for ground cover and edging. Its scallop-edged lime-green leaves look handsome in their own right and in early summer the plant erupts into a froth of lime-yellow flowers.

Helleborus foetidus Despite its name, this evergreen hellebore does not stink! Its long- lasting pale green bells open early in spring, and each has the thinnest rim of purple, which will provide a subtle tie to red or purple neighbours.

Milium effusum 'Aureum' Bowles' golden grass, a broad-leaved grass that's easy to grow and easy to place. Its color lasts all year, clear sunny yellow in good light or more limy in deeper shade.

Purple and blue

Ajuga reptans Easy and excellent ground cover with spires of blue flowers above a carpet of glossy foliage. Grow the purple- leaved 'Atropurpurea' to intensify this color partnership even further.

Brunnera macrophylla The deep blue perennial forget-me-not is happy in shade, so grow it beneath purple-leaved shrubs where its blooms twinkle through the dark foliage.

Scilla sibirica Heavenly deep blue flowers pop up as if from nowhere from this little spring bulb. Scatter it in a whole carpet - once you've grown ten, think what a hundred or two hundred would look like.

Tips Of Growing Healthy Flowers

Harmonies

To build up a harmonious planting combination, begin by choosing a key color on which to base the scheme. Decide on whether you want a hot, vibrant color such as red, orange or yellow, or a cool, calming one like blue or green. Then, choose from the adjacent colors on the color wheel. Weave through greens and neutrals to make up a beautifully balanced scheme. The following examples are based around the three principal or primary colors, though there can be endless variations on color harmonies. Subtle and restful, blue works well in many combinations and there is a plentiful range of plants to choose from. As buffer colors, choose silver-green and blue-green foliage plants which pick out the tones in the flowers, as well as plenty of plain green leaves.

• Blue, mauve and purple make a delightful mix of cool summer color. Try the drumstick heads of the decorative onion Allium 'Purple Sensation' with Lavandula angustifolia 'Munstead' and the perennial wallflower Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve'.

•Shades of blue along with silver and grey foliage create a very soft and laid-back planting. Try a blue-green hosta such as 'Halcyon' with the ornamental grass Elymus arenarius and blue primulas or the deep azure Veronica peduncularis 'Georgia Blue'.

•Pink and blue in soft shades is a classic combination. Try catmint (Nepeta x faassenii) with Lavatera x clementii 'Blushing Bride'

•Strong pinks and blues look much warmer and eye-catching. Try Anchusa 'Loddon Royalist' with a deep pink rose such as 'Gertrude Jekyll'.

Harmonies with yellow

The sunny associations of yellow make it a popular choice for color schemes. As a buffer, weave through plenty of light to mid- green foliage but avoid dark evergreens that would give a rather sombre touch.

•Pale yellow makes a glowing harmony with soft peach and apricot. Try Anthemis tin ctoria 'E.C. Buxton' with one of the many peach- coloured roses, such as 'Sweet Dream'.

•Bright yellow with orange and lime-green combine in a lively and upbeat harmony. Try yellow argyranthemums (marguerites) with the lime-tasselled Amaranthus caudatus and orange gazanias.

•Combine yellow flowers with golden or green-and-gold leaves for a warm and sunny planting. Try Coreopsis grandiflora 'Calypso' with the shrubby honeysuckle Lonicera nitida 'Lemon Beauty'.

Harmonies with red

Hot and lively harmonies create high drama in the garden. Green foliage plays an immensely important role in a hot harmony by acting as a buffer among so many brightly colored flowers, while yellow-green foliage introduces a lighter note.

•Dark reds marry well with purple or maroon, although it is best to restrict this powerful combination to a small scale to avoid too sombre a look. Try the chocolate plant, Cosmos'atrosanguineus, with Sedum 'Purple Emperor'.

•Dusky purple leaves look wonderful with red if used in moderation, although gloomy in excess amounts. Try Physocarpus opulifolius 'Diabolo' as a backdrop for red dahlias.

•Clear red and bright orange positively sing with warmth and life. Try partnering orange lilies with bright red Crocosmia 'Lucifer'.

The Attraction Of Flowers

The Mother's Way with Flowers

When I showed this flower to my gardener friend he laughed and said that he remembered seeing a sadhak bringing these flowers to the Mother on a conspicuous branch. Before he could come near she vehemently told him not to bring those flowers to her. She 'could not even stand their presence! Either then or later she gave some bad meaning to them. I have quite forgotten.

So I wrote to the Mother telling her that I was very attracted to this flower although I had been told she did not like it. She accepted the loose flowers I had sent through a sadhak who took my note to read to her and she asked him to give her a piece of paper on which she wrote in French, "Beginning of realisation in Matter"! This he brought to me and the name filled me with joy and intense aspiration to identify myself with this flower and its deep power of fulfilment.

It seems to me that the consciousness of the person presenting the flowers had also a role in determining the spiritual significance of the flowers.

The Mother herself always got a beautiful response from the plants. Once she gave a sprig of Divine's Love to a sadhak, who was one of the Ashram gardeners, with the request: "Can we grow this?" He thought for a moment and then said: "Yes, Mother".

The sprig was planted, but nothing seemed to be growing and he had some misgivings. However, he was informed that the Mother took keen interest in the little sprig. When the Mother came to know about his despair, she asked that the small pot containing that sprig be brought and kept in a place where she could see it everyday. It was done and the Mother looked at it every time she passed by.

A few days later, new buds were seen and the small cutting grew vigorously. The Mother asked to transplant it into a bigger pot since the roots filled up the small pot. It filled one pot after another. Finally, it was suggested that it could be planted in the Ashram rockery, where you now see it as a full grown shrub or a little tree.

I believe a friendly understanding of the basic needs of vegetal life is necessary for establishing a contact with plants. Surprisingly, one of the most important needs of a plant is the same as that of a child: to be loved and recognised. The Mother says somewhere that a young child is so small that its chief need is to make itself seen or heard. Taking this hint, I often put my best plant of the day or week "on the throne" where it can be seen and admired.

The Arrangement Of Flowers

Vase of Peonies

A vase on a table holds a bouquet of red and pink peonies of the paeonia sinensis variety. They are already almost over: one of them is drooping, another has lost its petals. One flower lies on the table.

Manet unquestionably painted the finest bouquets of his period, and the peony is his favourite flower: he painted no less than fifteen pictures of it, three of which are in the Louvre. His peonies are always of the paeonia sinensis variety. This was introduced from China in the first years of the nineteenth century and had its greatest success from the beginning of the Second Empire onwards; it was one of the manifestations of the revival of Far Eastern influence in the second half of the nineteenth century.

The peony was one of the favourite plants of the Chinese and Japanese. The arborescent variety (paeonia suffriticosa), which grows to six feet in height and has magnificent pink flowers, has been cultivated in China since time immemorial, and by the tenth

century there were already thirty-nine varieties of it. The Chinese name means 'the most beautiful.' In China speculation centered round these peonies, as it did later, in the West, on tulips. For a long time they were known in the West from paintings or embroideries imported from the Orient, but the plant itself was closely protected in the gardens of the Imperial Palace and in those of the mandarins. In 1787 Dr Duncan, a surgeon then working for the East India Company, managed to procure a specimen, which he brought back to Kew Gardens. The plant fetched a high price in the West.

Other varieties of the paeonia had been known in the West for a long time: Pliny calls it the oldest of plants. It received its name from Paeon, the doctor who used its roots to dress the wound given to Pluto by Hercules. Paeon became the god of healing and was indentified with Apollo; so it was that a hymn in praise of Apollo was called a paean. The Greeks said that peonies must only be picked at night, for the green woodpecker pecked out the eyes of the rash man who might try to do so by day; also they should be uprooted by a hungry dog attracted by the smell of roast meat, for the groaning of the plant was fatal to anyone who heard it. All these legends come perhaps from the phosphorescence of the seed, which gave it a supernatural appearance.

The male or wild peony (paeonia mascula or corallina) seems to be a native of the North of Europe. The common garden (or female) peony (paeonia officinalis), which, as its name implies, is used in pharmacy, came from Crete and the Mediterranean coasts and was introduced into Europe in the sixteenth century. Several varieties of peony were currently used by the flower painters of the seventeenth century: along with the rose, the tulip and the iris, the peony is one of the chief ornaments of the bouquets of that period.

A Gallery Of Flowers

Flowers, Animals and Insects

At the foot of an oak stump, on which are to be seen butterflies and two birds, one of them in its nest, there are various plants and flowers growing: ox-eye daisies (chrysanthemum leucanthemum), poppies (player rhoeas), cornflowers (centaurea cyanus), the archangel or dead nettle (lamium album), the bramble (rubus), an umbelliferous plant of the wild carrot type, a centaury, a myosotis, an ear of corn and various mushrooms. A whole fauna is crawling about, two snakes, some snails and a vole or field mouse.

Most of the seventeenth-century artists painted civilised flowers: picked in the gardens or fields and arranged artistically in vases, these contributed with their ephemeral grace to the agreeableness of the house. But a small group of painters dehumanised flowers — tried to capture them as an element in the world of life. Already Ambrosius Bosschaert's flowers, and even more so those of Roeland Savery, had brought with them from the gardens where they were picked a whole small  world, active and buzzing. Other painters, later, looked at the flower before the hand of man had severed it from its ties with nature. Among these were the Dutchman Marseus van Schrieck (1619/2o-1678), Abraham Mignon, a German who became Dutch, and later Peter Snyers (1681-1752).

Marseus van Schrieck was a man of strange ways, with a passion for the infinitely small. When he lived in Rome, the Nordic colony nicknamed him Die Snuffelaer (The Ferret), on account of his researches on insects; and when he returned to Holland he lived in a country house near Amsterdam, where he bred insects and reptiles.

Less is known about Abraham Mignon: only that he was baptised at Frankfurt am Main, was a pupil of Jacob Marrel in that town, then had lessons from Jan Davidsz de Heem at Utrecht, and worked there and afterwards at Wetzlar. The picture in the Brussels Museum is perhaps his masterpiece. In it a whole small world creeps and teems, a world where there is birth, living, killing and dying, while modestly the flower spreads its ephemeral innocence in the midst of these unchained instincts and itself helps to transmit the life-principles of some of these small beasts the insects. The monographic realism of the first still-life painters is continued by this artist, but in their pictures living creatures and objects are instinctively brought together within the great organic unity of the cosmos.

Weeds And Diseases Of Garden

Problem-Scab

Scab (Cladosporium cucumerinum, Streptomyces scabies) is a disease of vegetable crops. Cucumbers, beets, cabbages, carrots, aubergines, spinach, onions, parsnips, potatoes and turnips are all susceptible.

Scab infections are well named because the spots on most plants look like scabs, whether they are on the roots or the above-ground parts of the plant. On leaves of members of the squash family, the spots are angular and don't look scabby, but the disease spreads quickly to make scabby-looking spots on cucumbers or rotting areas at the stem ends of melons.

Solution-Prevent problems

Resistant cultivars of many vegetables are commonly available, and it is worth choosing them when possible. For potatoes, check planting stock carefully and discard any potatoes with scabby spots.

The scab that infects crops other than cucurbits is encouraged by alkaline soil. If possible, keep soils at a pH of 5.5 or so, particularly in areas where you are growing potatoes. Apply 13-25mm (1 inch) of compost before planting, too, because it contains organisms that prey on those that cause scab. Finally, practise rotations of at least four years to avoid problems

Problem- mealybugs and scale insects

Solution - Spray outdoors

When mealybugs and scale insects attack outdoor plants, you may have to spray. Dormant oil does an excellent job of killing both types of insects, but remember to use it only in areas where plants become dormant during the winter months and spray before blossoms open in the spring.

Fine horticultural oils are also effective against these insects and have the advantage of being light enough not to injure actively growing plant tissues. In frost-free areas, these oils are a better choice for control as long as you spray before the summer heat sets in. You are usually safe if you stop spraying in early summer.

Insect And Animal Pests In Garden

Problem-Leaf hoppers

Leaf hoppers are small, wedge-shaped insects that prey on numerous plant species. They are particularly troublesome to fruit trees and potatoes but eat lots of other vegetables as well as a wide range of ornamental and grasses.

Both adults and nymphs suck plant juices from plant stems and the undersides of leaves. They release a somewhat toxic substance into the plants as they feed and also spread many viral diseases Rather than noticing the leaf hoppers themselves, you might first notice that plant leaves are puckered or mottled.

Solution 1 Spray dormant oil

Adults of many leaf hopper species overwinter on perennial plants, and this is particularly true of the species that attack fruit trees. Fortunately, there is an easy way to control these insects. In late winter, long before the buds finish swelling, spray dormant oil on the tree, covering it well. Not only will it kill leafhoppers, it will control many other insects and diseases on the tree. You can find dormant oil at any garden supply store or mail-order garden company.

Solution 2 Coddle beneficial insects

Many beneficial organisms attack leaf hoppers. In addition to ladybugs, lacewings and parasitic wasps, which prey on many small insects, parasitic flies, damsel bugs, minute pirate bugs, and spiders all prey on leaf hoppers. Plant mixed groups of flowering plants to attract these species. But more than that, avoid using any pesticide sprays, even those that are supposedly fairly benign. A garden without poisons builds larger populations of beneficial organisms than one where they have to fight for survival.