pebiuary C, 1909 



HORTICULTURE 



179 



WILD FLOWERS. 



A pai'er read before the Illinois Hortitul 

 tural Society by O. C. Simonrts. 

 In August, 1892, I visited, in com- 

 pany with its owner, the country home 

 of Mr. William Robinson. As we ap- 

 proached his house, I noticed, some 

 distance ahead, quite large areas of 

 delicate color, mostly light blue. On 

 coming nearer, these areas were found 

 to be large beds of native American 

 asters. "Oh, you have some of our 

 flowers!" I exclaimed-. "Yes," said Mr. 

 Robinson, "you Americans do not ap- 

 preciate your wild flowers. We have 

 to bring them over to England and 

 cultivate them awhile before you will 

 notice them." This has been to some 

 extent true. We have valued our 

 flowers as little as we have our forest, 

 our birds, our wild game, and other 

 products of nature which cost us noth- 

 ing. To be sure, as children, we have 

 all taken delight in going to the woods 

 and picking wild flowers, and then we 

 have taken them home in a wilted con- 

 dition and thrown them away. I know 

 areas near cities where this has been 

 done to such an extent that where 

 trill iums, hepatlcas, erythroniums and 

 blood-roots were formerly abundant, 

 they can no longer be found. Some 

 people who missed th.e wild flowers in 

 their vicinity secured some wild phlox 

 and trilliums from another place, and 

 planted them in their own yard. These 

 grew well, and were left undisturbed 

 so that they would increase in num- 

 bers, but one day they were discovered 

 by some passeis-by, who entered the 

 grounds, and commenced picking the 

 blue and white blossoms. When re- 

 monstrated with, instead of realizing 

 that they had been intruding and had 

 done something wrong, they simply 

 said, "Why we thought these were 

 wild." 



Let us take for granted the fact that 

 our native flowers are beautiful, and 

 that they may be used to advantage 

 in home grounds, parks, and other 

 areas which we try to make pleasing 

 with planting, and then let us study 

 how to secure the most satisfactory 

 results. The place for such study is 

 wherever wild flowers are growing. 

 One can often see such places from a 

 car window. Every spring I notice 

 along railways low places which are 

 covered with marsh marigolds; other 

 places covered with wild phlox, often 

 a bit of woodland where trilliums show 

 their white heads in profusion. Some- 

 times the ground is almost completely 

 covered with shooting stars. Again, a 

 sandy ridge will be colored blue and 

 purple with the flowers of the lupine. 

 Asters, goldenrods, daisies, and butter- 

 cups are abundant in certain localities 

 at various times of the year. Still 

 other flowers which I remember hav- 



ing seen with pleasure from a car win- 

 dow are our native lilies, bunch-berries, 

 painted-cup, buttei fly-weed, spider- 

 wort and purc-oon. These are by no 

 means all. 1 merely mention a few 

 neighbor. There are now firms that 

 ■chat I happen to think of as I write. 

 I remember a roadside where some 

 wide-spreading thorns grew. Under- 

 neath these the conditions were not 

 favorable for grass, but the ground was 

 hidden in May with our native ane- 

 mones. Another area was carpeted 

 with dog-tooth violets, both the yellow 

 and white, but each in a colony by it- 

 self. Many of the flowers mentioned 

 are so fragile and delicate that they 

 cannot be used for cut-floweis, or for 

 house decoration with satisfaction, bui 

 that is no reason why they should not 

 be allowed to grow and beautify ihe 

 land in places where they will be 

 happy, and give us pleasure. 



The examples mentioned, and many 

 others which you will undoubtedly re- 

 call, should fui-nish hints for the treat- 

 ment of unusual spaces in parks. Ad- 

 vantage might be taken of a place that 

 is naturally wet. Instead of draining 

 it or filling the area and covering it 

 with a lawn, we might have a succes- 

 sion of flowers throughout the season, 

 beginning with marsh-marigolds, 

 skunk cabbage and wild violets, which 

 could be followed later with some of 

 the saxifrages, meadow me, lady-slip- 

 pers, blue lobelias, cardinal flowers, 

 grass ot Parnassus, and finally with 

 the closed and the fringed gentians. 

 All of these plants like moist situa- 

 tions, and are most attractive in ap- 

 pearance. A group of shrubs on high- 

 er land might furnish protected places 

 for hepatlcas, dutchman's breeches 

 and blood-roots. A sandy knoll, where 

 it is dlflicult to have a good lawn, 

 might be beautifully covered with puc- 

 coons, lupines, butterfly weeds and 

 other flowers that like such a location. 

 Instead of trying to have beds of wild 

 flowers with definite geometrical 

 shapes, let them spread as freely and 

 carelessly as they would grow in any 

 of the places where we usually look 

 for them. "AVhat do you suppose 1 

 study," said Mr. Robinson, "when 1 

 wish to select a good shape for a flower 

 area?" I was fortunate enough to give 

 the right answer the first time, but it 

 was accidental. "Clouds," I said hesi- 

 tatingly. Mr. Robinson said, "Yes, 

 clouds always have good shapes." 



If we could only appreciate our native 

 flowers as they deserve, we might have 

 them in profusion. They would greet 

 us from among the trees and shrubs 

 of our parks, from every roadside, 

 from our own home grounds, and 

 would be waiting for us along fences 

 and in our forests. Many wild flowers 

 ran be moved at almost any time of 

 the year by taking out the plants in 

 blocks of earth so that their roots w-ill 

 be very little disturbed. Others can 

 be moved when dormant by simply 

 transplanting their roots, and still 

 others can be raised from seed. Many 

 of them can be collected from some lo- 

 cality within reach, but in making 

 such collections one should avoid tak- 

 ing the plants from places where they 

 may be seen and enjoyed by many 

 passers-by, and from neighbor's yards. 



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— at least without the consent of such 

 make a business of collecting wild 

 plants and selling them at reasonable 

 prices. 



When I think of a large sugar maple 

 forest in northern Michigan whose 

 floor was covered with ground hem- 

 lock, above which appeared the enor- 

 mous white flowers of the trillium 

 grandifiorum; when I think of wooded 

 hillsides covered with masses of pink, 

 white and blue flowers of the hepatl- 

 cas; of sandy fields almost entirely 

 covered with lupine; of areas in open 

 woodlands covered with wild asters 

 and goldenrods: of groups of mocca- 

 sin flowers seen against green banks, 

 of marshy land sprinkled with fringed 

 gentians; of the banks of streams bor- 

 dered with cardinal flowers and jewel- 

 weed, I wish that we might reproduce 

 these effects near where we live. To 

 me they seem more beautiful than beds 

 of tulips, of hyacinths or geraniums. 



