Beginning gardeners, especially, are so enthusiastic that unless the curb of a plan is at hand, they easily become col lectors. Marion Shull once said, "If you would avoid becom ing an iris enthusiast, never let yourself acquire beyond the fifth variety." This is true of all other perennials that present a wide choice of colors-peonies, phlox, hemerocallis, chrys anthemums, and even lilies. It becomes first a question of rigid selection to secure the best variety for your purpose, a color scheme, or succession. The second consideration is to place this material where it will best carry out your garden scheme.

In spring, gardeners crave a host of daffodils, wide splashes of color from tulips, many spring-flowering shrubs, and small trees like dogwoods and crabapples. Myriads of iris, peonies in abundance, delphinium, foxgloves and lilies also tempt them. The garden looks lovely into June, but the rest is dull. Gardeners who have had the sad experience of ensuing dearth, have learned to limit themselves to one, or possibly two, strong compositions for each season, even spring. Size and number depend on the extent of the garden. In the small for mal garden with a terminal motive, a good composition should appear at least twice, once on each side of the main axis. In the formal garden, with a central motive, the same composi tion might be used four times-once in each quadrant around the central feature. As the size of the garden increases, the same or similar harmonies may be repeated along the main axis. This strengthens the design, and the repetition and se quence lead the eye on to the culminating focal point. Thus unity and harmony, impossible with unrelated groups, are created.