GLOWING COLOURS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 77, 1 April 1932, Page 8

GLOWING COLOURS.

AUTUMN IN THE PARK. RAINBOW-HUED FLOWEBS. THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER. Spring is a very beautiful season of the year, but autumn has her glories too; there is only the difference of deliand gorgeous sunset. Just before she puts on' her soher winter mantle Nature seems to delight.in decking herself in all the richest colours of her amazing wardrobe. Spring makes one think of the pastel tints of a Persian praying carpet; autumn recalls Bokhara silks and barbaric jewels.

In these halcyon days of early autumn when the waters of the harbour are asleep, the flowers of the earth spread their most gorgeous petals revelling in the almost summer sunshine, the grass is a rich emerald green, and everything seems to enjoy the peaceful calm of windless autumn days before the rude gusts of winter tear the lovely picture to shreds.

Albert Park, always a charming spot for the saunterer, is just now an epitome of Nature's love of colour. After the rains of late autumn the sward looks like bright green velvet, and the rain-bow-hued flower beds dazzle the eye in the crystal clear sunlight. Even the seagulls prefer .this peaceful spot to the calm waters of the harbour. Their squabbling for the crumbs thrown by the city lunchers is less querulous than us.ual, and the flocks sporting in the three tiers of the fountain splash the water over their dove-grey backs like a lot : of youngsters at the seaside. •

Near* the statue Vof Queen Victoria there are two brilliant.beds of cannas, orange, pale • gold, old-gold, scarlet and pink, thrown into {relief by the dark green leaves. On the opposite side of the middle, lawns, are two oblong beds of zinnias, in wMoh tfee predominant colours are red and orange with intermediate shades. *Sbt far off two round beds of dahlias are just at their zenith, the hues running' through an astonishing range and including the dazzling pale gold or sulphur colour that recalls molten metal.' A few belated'roses in

a ring of French and African marigolds are still blooming, with that rather melancholy air the last rose of summer always suggests.

Round the fountain the beds are planted in pastel shades. The formal borders are composed of the quaint eheverie, or green roses, the variegated althernantheria, ' the French-grey centaurea and begonias. From the grasslike carpet of arenaria rise floral stars, each with a vivid canna in the centre, and between the stars rises a single kochia, that pale green plant that so exactly mimics a closely-branched pine tree.

In the beds on ■ the Princes Street front the long lines of formal border plant's- hem in a mixed collection among which there are still a few heads of i clear sky-blue hydrangea punctuating the darker colours of the other flowers. The only suggestion of the coming fall is the bronzing 01 the beautiful lime trees opposite the police barracks, a golden branch here and there on-the elms, and a suggestion of russet in the oaks. Everything else is still rivalling the rainbow and the colours of precious stones.