THE WILD GARDEN. 



97 



settle the question of spring flowers, and the spring garden, as well 

 as that of hardy flowers generally ; and many parts of the grounds 

 may be made alive with spring flowers, without in the least interfering 

 with the flower garden itself. The blue stars of the Apennine 

 Anemone will be seen to greater advantage when in half-shady places, 

 under trees, or in the meadow grass, than in any flower garden, and 

 this is but one of many of sweet spring flowers that will succeed in 

 like ways. 



Perhaps an example or two of what has already been done 



with Daffodils and Snowdrops may serve to show the way, and 



explain the gains of the wild garden, and there is 



Narcissi in the no more charming flower to begin with than the 



wild garden. Narcissus, which, while fair in form as any Orchid 

 or Lily of the tropics, is as much at home in 

 our climate as the Kingcups in the marsh and the Primroses in the 

 wood. And when the wild Narcissus comes with these, in the 

 woods and orchards of Northern France and Southern England it 

 has also for companions the Violet and the Cowslip, hardiest children 

 of the north, blooming in and near the still leafless woods. And this 

 fact should lead us to see that it is not only a garden flower we have 

 here, but one which may give glorious beauty to our woods and fields 

 and meadows as well as to the pleasure grounds. 



In our country in a great many places there is plenty of room to 

 grow them in other ways than in the garden proper, and this not 

 merely in country seats, but in orchards and cool meadows. To 

 chance growth in such places we owe it already that many Narcissi 

 or Daffodils which were lost to gardens, in the period when hardy 

 plants were wholly set aside for bedding plants, have been preserved 

 to us, at first probably in many cases thrown out with the garden 

 refuse. In many places in Ireland and the west of England Narcissi 

 lost to gardens have been found in old orchards and meadows. 



Three months after our native kind has flowered in the weald 

 of Sussex and in the woods or orchards of Normandy, many 

 of its allies are beneath the snow in the mountain valleys of Europe, 

 waiting till the summer sun melts the deep snow. On a high plateau 

 in Auvergne I saw many acres in full bloom on July 16, 1894, and 

 these high plateaux are much colder than our own country generally. 

 Soils that are cool and stiff and not favourable to a great variety 

 of plants suit Narcissi perfectly. On the cool mountain marshes and 

 pastures, where the snow lies deep, the plant has abundance of 

 moisture one reason why it succeeds better in our cool soils. In 

 any case it does so, and it is mostly on dry light soils that Narcissi 

 fail to succeed. Light, sandy or chalky soils in the south of England 

 are useless, and Narcissus culture on a large scale should not be 



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