Grassy though the long leaves are, the pampas grasses are planted more for their great foxtail-blooms than for their foliage, whereas an equally tall plant, Miscanthm 'Silver Feather' is good in foliage and flower. The forms of Miscanthm sinensis-particularly the white striped M.s. 'Variegatus' and yellow cross-banded 'Zebrinus'-are useful to add lightness to the largest of plantings. Bowles' golden grass (Milium effusum 'Aureum') is best in shade but Bowles' golden sedge (Carex strict'a 'Aurea') will thrive and add brilliant yellowish tone to a frontal group, not exceeding 2ft(6ocm) in height, Compact also and valuable in its glaucous grey is Helictotrichon sempervirens, although the flowering sprays, equally grey, are considerably taller but can be removed in good time. Its glaucous tone is echoed in Festuca glauca, a neat tuffet for the foreground while equally dwarf, but gracefully arching is the brilliant yellow Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola'. For autumn effect we have the purplish flowers of that neat clump-former Molinia caerulea 'Variegata', and for summer effect Pennisetum orientale with its soft bottle-brushes of mauve-grey. Stipa gigantea has done as much as any grass in recent years to call attention to neglected beauty; it is a giant oat of 6ft(2m) or so, very resistant to wind. The variegated forms seem to be stressed, in spite of advice in an earlier paragraph, but these all can add so much to groupings of other plants, and the same may equally well be said of the numerous green species. None of those mentioned is of a running nature; all may be trusted in the tidiest garden. It should be borne in mind that grasses, like silvery-grey plants, are best planted in warm spring weather. RE-ASSESSMENTS Some of us are commuters, in other words summer evenings are times of full enjoyment; and it is then that all the pale colours shine at their best. It is then, too, the time to take out pencil and paper to note plants which are not giving full satisfaction. This may be due to ill health-unsuitable soil or position, too dry or too wet; or to poor placing -bad neighbours, or the wrong colour, contrasting when it should be complementary or vice versa, weakness when there should be boldness, or flower shapes too much alike. Everyone has different ideas, fortunately, but in creating colour groups part of the spectrum is better than the whole and all will go well if the division of colour is made central to the reds. It is the reds verging towards yellow that are so inimical to the reds verging towards blue. All else can be happily resolved with the huge resources on our palette. CULTURAL POINTERS Plants purchased in containers are generally successful and will reveal their beauty even in the second season; open-ground plants take perhaps a year longer. If plants arrive in autumn or winter when the soil is sticky, or just cold and wet, it is a good plan to establish the new plants in pots or boxes of prepared potting soil, and store in a light, airy shed or cold greenhouse or frame, ready for planting in spring.