Wild Gardens 



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tank I placed the yellow-spattered dock, the purple pickerel- weed, the arrow- 

 head, and the white water-lily, all gathered from a lonely pond in the woods, 

 and in one end a compact mass of wild forget-me-nots, lifted from the margin 

 of a nearby stream. In the wet ground were planted the early spring cress, 

 the painted cup, and a little later on the pitcher plant, the purple-fringed 

 orchis, and a dozen or more specimens of the pogonia and the calopogon. 

 Surrounding these were placed the taller and more vigorous of the water- 

 loving plants. At one end I put several stalks of the tall meadow rue, and 

 about them a few plants of the 

 tawny touch-me-not. Back of 

 these I massed the cardinal flower 

 and the great lobelia. Along 

 the edge and farther from the 

 tank grew the hyssop skullcap, the 

 purple vervain, and the yellow 

 sundrops. At the other end a 

 great quantity of the blue flag was 

 set out, and a little way off a 

 thrifty bunch of marsh marigold. 

 During the year of transplanting 

 all did well, for I was careful to 

 keep everything wet. But I knew 

 that the test would come in the 

 fall, when the country house would 

 be closed and the delicate plants 

 would be left upon a dry hillside, 

 with no other moisture than the 

 natural rainfall until the follow- 

 ing spring. 



As I might have expected, 

 with the more tender flowers I 

 failed. Such of the pitcher plants 

 as survived the winter sent up a 

 few lean and impoverished 

 pitchers, but none of them had 

 vitality enough to produce a flower. To my surprise, half a dozen 

 pogonias and a few calopogons struggled to maturity amid the 



Commonest and best of the goldenrods (Solidago Canadensis) 



