4 AUGUST 1939, Page 18

In the Garden

The most plutocratic garden in England has been opened to the public once a week until the end of July, and as there is much apprehension that the treat may not be repeated next year, some of its lessons or special virtues may perhaps be usefully recorded. The general idea is a segregation rather than the amalgamation of colours. In the succession of rough borders the first pair contains whites and light yellows, the second pair blues and kindred tints, the third (which was much the most ardently admired) a glorious series of oranges and reds. One may say that the tiger-lilies set the note. It is, of course, possible so to provide a succession of colours in a single herbaceous border. One ingenious Oxfordshire gardener had a long path with a false perspective—that is, it narrowed to its most distant point—and he enhanced this perspective by a graded deepening of colour from near to far. Far be it from me to suggest that a false perspective is good art, but the desired effect was most successfully attained. In the great garden under discussion the principle of separating colours was delightfully seen in a narrow border in the kitchen garden. It consisted chiefly of squares of violas, each square of one hue, and violas were admirably used as a floor for lilies. Most of the roses are of the older sorts, left un-