In Praise of Shadows

The shimmer of light and shade across the greensward or flower border has wonderful possibilities. It is not necessary, or even desirable, to have a flower garden bathed in full sun light all day long. There is greater beauty in the play of light and shade. Colors that are bold or even garish in full sun are deeper and more lovely in shadow. This is particularly true of magenta and true purples. Bright, luminous colors, scarlet and intense yellow, are more luminous in semishade, but dull colors, dusty pink, the "smokes," and even dark blue recede when so placed. These always need full sun. Even the shadow of a passing cloud alters color, and the late afternoon sun filtering through foliage creates a different color effect from that of morning. Vistas that might seem long and monotonous, if unbroken by shadows are lovely when the shade of tall trees and shrubs falls across them.

It is a tradition that trees, because of their shade and root competition, have no place in or near a garden, but if the right ones are selected there is little competition. Trees in crease the scale of a garden, are excellent accents, and cast pleasing shadows. Maples, lindens, and elms, perhaps, should not be used, but many of the smaller, less dense and greedy, flowering trees such as cercis, dogwood, sourwood, magnolia, and laburnum, or flowering fruits such as apple or cherry can be planted not only for their bloom, which is important, but for contrast of line, scale, texture, and shadow.

The experienced gardener or the one with a developed sense of color is often dissatisfied with such simple schemes as we have suggested. To him (or more often to her), color is fascinating, a wonderful opportunity. For these readers, we offer the following notes.

Blue

Blue is popular in the garden because of the beauty of blue flowers, the emotional effect, and perhaps because it is rela tively rare in the plant world. This is true, of course, only of true or pure blue with not the faintest tinge of red or yellow. Pure blue is found in Chinese delphinium, alkanet (anchusa), browallia, leadwort, Salvia patens, lobelia, flax, and some of the cornflowers. Lighter true blues appear in forgetmenots, Delphinium formosum belladonna and coelestinum, and in the silvery blue of Salvia azurea. Most gardeners include all flowers that appear blue, the lavender-blues, gray-blues, and blue-violets. Red-violets, where the red begins to be dominant and the color verges toward magenta, and purple should not be classed as blue.