THE WILD GARDEN. 165 



be got over by studying natural groupings of wild flowers. Once 

 established, the plants soon begin to group themselves in pretty 

 ways. 



The Secret of the Soil. — In the cultivation of hardy plants and 

 especially in wild gardening the important thing is to find out what 

 things really do in the soil, without which much good way cannot be 

 made. Many people make errors in planting things that are notoriously 

 tender in our country and very often fail in consequence ; but apart 

 from such risky planting perfectly hardy plants may disappear 

 owing to some dislike of the soil. They flower feebly at first and 

 afterwards gradually wane in spite of all our efforts. I have made 

 attempts to establish spring Snowflakes in grass, none of which suc- 

 ceeded, owing to the cool soil, yet one of the Snowflakes in the Thames 

 Valley grows with the vigour of a wild plant. I have put thousands 

 of Snowdrops in places where I could hardly see a flower a few \-ears 

 later, yet in some places it establishes itself in friable soil by streamlets 

 and in many other situations. So it is with the Crocus. I find it 

 difficult to naturalise, taking but slowly and gradually diminishing, 

 and yet I have seen it in places cover the ground. The Narcissus, 

 which is so free and enduring in cool damp soil does little good on 

 warm, light or chalky soil. What will do or will not do is often a 

 question of experience, but the point is when we see a thing 

 doing well to take the hint. People often complain of the texture 

 of the grass as a cause of failure, yet I have thousands of the 

 Tenby Daffodil for ten years in rich and rank masses of Cocksfoot and 

 other coarse grasses in coverts — never mown or the old grass taken 

 away at any time, and the Narcissus gets better year by year. So it is 

 a question of finding out the thing the soil will grow, and we shall 

 perhaps only arrive at that knowledge after various discouragements. 

 Some things are so omnivorous in their appetites that they will 

 grow anywhere, but some, the more beautiful races of bulbous and other 

 early flowers, will only thrive and stay with us where they like the soil. 

 It should be clearly seen therefore that what may be done with any 

 good result in the wild garden cannot be determined beforehand, but 

 must depend on the nature of the soil and other circumstances which 

 can be known only to those who study the ground. ^ 



Flowers beneath Trees. — Where the branches of trees, both ever- 

 green and summer-leafing, sweep the turf in pleasure-grounds many 

 pretty spring-flowering bulbs may be naturalised beneath the branches, 

 and will thrive without attention. It is chiefly in the case of deciduous 

 trees that this can be done ; but even in the case of Conifers and 

 Evergreens some graceful objects may be dotted beneath the outer- 

 most points of their lower branches. We know that a great number 

 of our spring flowers and hardy bulbs mature their foliage and gc 



