All tulips are beautiful. When used in quantity, they can be marvelous.

Permanent plants such as flowering crabapples or peaches, a luxuriant wistaria on the garden wall or nearby trellis, shrubs that bloom in May, and such perennials as flax, iris, columbines, and peonies can supplement tulips. Mrs. Wilder speaks of Bechtels crab with its double roselike pink blos soms, underplanted with purple and light lavender iris inter spersed with pink and cherry-colored tulips, or mauve ones near the deeper-colored Malus scheideckeri or the Judastree (Cercis).

Try some of the fine pink Flamingo among clumps of bleed ingheart underplanted with Nepeta mussini; the rich purple The Bishop glowing above a bed of clear yellow pansies with a few of Louis XIV for contrast; the deep, yellow Mrs. John Scheepers or the softer yellow Niphetos with a clump or two of feathery-foliaged blue flax; Pink Yolande with blue Can- ada phlox and Iris White Knight; White Mrs. Grullemans or Annie Speelman underplanted with forgetmenots or brunnera for a strong contrast; or lavender Melicette or King of the Mauves underplanted with Siberian wallflower, which is not subtle but a strong accent.

You will need few sharp cleavages between groups of tu lips. To be most pleasing they should drift together. Con tinuity and repetition should be maintained by the repeated use of a single variety in relatively small groups, or by re peating various combinations along the border. The green foliage of the perennials will help separate combinations ar ranged as definite color schemes and which may not be com pletely harmonious with other groups.

After the tulip foliage has matured, shallow-rooted annual snapdragon, Ageratum Blue Perfection, or asters can be used to cover bare spaces and at the same time augment later color schemes. Some gardeners object to annuals in a peren nial border because their lush growth hinders development or spoils the natural grace of perennials. To such gardeners, we suggest an even more careful arrangement of perennials to hide these bare spaces. We also hesitate to use many annuals in the border, but in this case and in every new garden, they seem to be needed. Not just any annual will do. It should be one which is sturdy enough to stand erect, and not so luxuri ant as to crowd-dwarf zinnias, Salvia farinacea, African marigolds, and a few miniature dahlias.

In Forty Years of Gardening, Anna Gilman Hill wisely re marks: "The true companion is the congenial associate hav ing similar tastes to one's own. It is important to distinguish the good companions of the garden from mixed company or casual neighbors.