WILD GARDEN 



plenty of land and to all persons who deiight in making 

 nature-like pictures with the help of plants. It may 

 also be in keeping in many small and humble areas. 

 The plants in a wild garden require less care than those 

 «ultivated according to any other system. The main 

 work is that of establishing the plants. If they are the 

 right kind they will soon become colonies. All that re- 

 mains to do is to remove brambles, thistles and other 

 uncomfortable weeds and occasionally check the exuber- 

 ance of the too vigorous species. On the other hand, 

 wild gardening demands the highest intelligence and 

 taste, close sympathy with nature, and that rare and 

 precious quality— enjoyment of common and every-day 

 things. 



There is no finer feature of autumn landscape in 

 America (so far as herbaceous growth is concerned) 

 than the roadside asters and goldenrods. Yet when 

 William Robinson conceived the idea of wild gardening, 

 these lovely flowers were banished from the English 

 hardy borders. In such an environment they waxed too 

 strong and crowded out many slender-habited plants 

 of delicate beauty. It seemed a pity to exclude these 

 American plants from English estates. The important 

 question was to find a proper environment for them. 

 In the wild garden such plants require less care than 

 in the hardy border, and they present nature-like 

 effects, and are in place. 



Asters and goldenrods are only two examples of the 

 class of plants for which the wild garden was created. 

 There are literally thousands of hardy plants from all 

 over the world that will take care of themselves when 

 once established in wild gardens. Many of these plants 

 are unfit for intensive cultivation. They will never be- 

 come general garden favorites. Some of them crowd 

 out weaker-growing plants. Many of them have their 

 "dramatic moment" and then lapse into the common- 

 place or unsightly. Others are too tall or rank or coarse 

 or weedy for conspicuous and orderly positions. Again, 

 many plants are insignificant as individuals but very 

 effective in masses. There are hundreds of interesting 

 plants that fail when measured by the conventional 

 standards. Their foliage may be ill-smelling, sticky or 

 prickly, but usually their flowers are too small or their 



WILD GARDEN 



1977 



\M0I\1 



2725. Sacaline naturalized in ; 

 This hardy herb grows 8 to 10 feet hi 



wild garden. 

 h in a single season. 



2724. Silphium perfoliatum. 

 Allied to the Compass Plant. Both are tall herbs, excellent for wild gardens 



season of bloom not long enough. The garden gate is 

 locked against them all. 



Among our common native plants that revel in the 

 wild garden are yarrow, Joe-Pye-weed, milkweed, 

 rudbeckias, compass plants, sunflowers and a host 

 of other perennial yellow-flowered composites, Bounc- 

 ing Bet, bed-straw, evening primrose, St. John's- 

 wort, lupines, button snakeroot, certain lilies, Oswego 

 tea, orange hawkweed, asters, bugbane, goldenrods. All 

 such plants tend to improve wonderfully when the strug- 

 gle for existence is somewhat eased for them. Nor does 

 this list exclude such treasures as the forget-me-nots, 

 cardinal-flowers, blue flags, water lilies, pitcher plants 

 and other marsh and aquatic subjects which properly 

 belong to the moist or bog garden, 

 though that is merely a department 

 of the wild garden. Then there are 

 the vines; and what wonders can be 

 accomplished in a wild garden with 

 wild grape, clematis, Virginia 

 creeper, perennial pea, trumpet 

 creeper and bitter-sweet! Think, 

 too, of all the spring flowers and 

 delicate woodsy things, — anemones, 

 columbines, moss pink, Jack-in-the- 

 pulpit, bloodroot.hepatica, Solomon's 

 seal, dutchman's breeches, ferns, 

 trilliums and violets! Evidently 

 there is sufficient material for a wild 

 garden composed exclusively of 

 American plants, and naturally such 

 material is least expensive. But the 

 wild garden spirit is essentially cos- 

 mopolitan. Many of the exotics can 

 be raised from seed, for it is not 

 necessary that all the subjects be 

 perennial. Some of the exotic mul- 

 leins, for example, are bold and 

 striking plants; nearly all of them 

 are biennial, but they resow them- 

 selves. Finally there is a vast num- 

 ber of rare plants that are dear to 

 the heart of the collector, but their 

 names mean nothing to the uniniti- 

 ated. The native shrubs and trees 

 may also have their places in the 

 wild garden. 



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