The search for better and better fruits is not more
persistent than for newly shaped or coloured flowers. The florists come nearer to the blue sweet pea, which is not a freak but possessed of its own beauty. In a glorious show that lately earned a gold medal two bowls were filled with Sutton's prettily named " blue wings " and " blue shadows." They are not a true blue but have a bluish darkness that is pleasing and new. However, to my eyes at least, no novelty of this year or last has approached " Powerscourt " among the mauves. Indeed I should call it the best sweet pea that has been bred since Lord Spencer's gardens produced the first of the waved varieties that have set the flower at the head of the annuals ever since. Most flowers have one natural colour. Delphiniums, for example, have red in the blue, and even to-day, in spite of the host of lovely blues, both dark and light, the chief trouble is to produce blues that have as big flowers as the more purple belladonnas. But new colours , are being achieved. A lovely pure white delphinium is in existence. A charming annual, into which new tints are being continually instilled, is the sidalcea, which still has a much narrower vogue than it deserves.
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