PLAXTIX< 1 



PLANTING 



2665 



distant effect, however, is very spirited, and the green 

 background saves the effort from vulgarity. 



On rocks the arrangement is largely determined by 

 the position of soil-pockets large enough to grow plants. 

 Soil can be added, but at great expense. 



The waterside offers chances for unique effects, 

 because the boldest tree-forms and colors have a mirror, 



scilla. and glory-of-the-snow. Unfortunately, they 

 cannot ripen their foliage before the lawn must be 

 mown, and therefore they die in a few years. 



Plant materials. 



There are three principles that grow out of the aim of 

 wild-gardening, which is to grow self-supporting colon- 

 ies that will look and act like 

 wild flowers. (1) The esthetic 

 principle is that all materials in 

 landscape wild-gardening shall be 

 primitive species or slightly im- 

 proved varieties. This rules out 

 all flowers that have been pro- 

 foundly modified by man, such 

 as double and round-petaled flow- 

 ers of all kinds. Double daffodils 

 thrive permanently in some 

 meadows, but they do not look 

 like wild flowers, as single daffo- 

 dils do. May tulips and Darwins 

 are permanent, but these also do 

 not look like wild flowers, as do 

 tulips with pointed petals. Cot- 

 tage tulips look wilder than other 

 late tulips, and the wildest of all 

 is Tulipa syh-estris. The magnifi- 

 cent red flower, Tulipa Gesneri- 

 ana, which somewhat resembles 

 the prototype of garden tulips, is 

 too gorgeous to look like a wild 

 flower in the woods, but it might 

 be used for distant effects in 

 the meadow, if oriental poppy is 

 considered permissible. (2) The 



3006. A wild-garden composition, showing the landscape effect. 



shrubs may obscure the line where land and water meet, 

 and amphibious plants, like the aquatic buttercup, may 

 swim out a few feet. Also the grace of falling water 

 can be suggested by shrubs with arching branches, or 

 vines planted at the top of the bank. Some of the best 

 colonies of wild flowers are those formed by seeds fall- 

 ing from the top of a bank. 



In roadside planting, ideals have changed greatly 

 since 1900. Then the standard of beauty was the shrub- 

 lined roadsides of Xew England. That type is rapidly 

 vanishing from the main roads, owing to the laws 

 against the gipsy moth and the use of the stone walls 

 for road-making. Xo two miles of roadside planting 

 should be alike. There should be shrubs enough to 

 bring back the birds; and wild flowers arranged and 

 maintained according to the principles of wild- 

 gardening. 



On city lots, the wild-garden shrinks merely to a 

 border of wild flowers but differs from the hardy bor- 

 der of mixed perennials. The latter is a conventional 

 arrangement of flowers, mostly of foreign origin, selected 

 for their showy forms, colors, and succession of bloom. 

 The border of wild flowers may become an artistic wild- 

 garden by directly imitating some natural effect, 

 especially a local combination or plant association. For 

 example, in the shady border the flood-plain may be 

 recalled by hepatica. bloodroot, meadow rue, and tril- 

 lium: the swamp by cinnamon and royal fern and marsh 

 marigold; the ra vine by Aster laevis and blue-stemmed 

 goldenrod. In the sunny border the prairie may be 

 recalled by cone-flowers, compass plant, and sunflowers; 

 the swamp by boneset, joe-pye, and blue lobelia; the 

 riverside by mist-flower (Eupatorium cadestinum) and 

 sneezeweed; the dry roadside by butterfly weed and 

 wild bergamot. 



< )n city lots, also, the free meadow contracts into a 

 close-cropped lawn, but the wild-gardening spirit is 

 expressed in numberless attempts to naturalize crocuses 

 and the March-blooming bulbs snowdrop, Siberian 



cultural principle demands per- 

 manence in wild-gardening. Cro- 

 cuses, early tulips, and hyacinths are too short-lived 

 in long grass. English books and magazines illustrate 

 exquisite effects in March and April made by winter 

 aconite, European cyclamen, Grecian wind-flower, 

 and Apennine anemone, but these are too tender or 

 difficult for the American public to naturalize. (3) 

 The economic principle requires that the materials of 

 wild-gardening shall be cheap, for expensive varieties 

 are instantly recognizable and look out of place. A good 

 rule is to pay not more than 1 or 2 cents a bulb for 

 daffodils by the 1,000 or 500. There are twenty to 

 thirty varieties that can be had at this rate, and they 

 fit the woods and meadows better than the varieties 

 that cost 3 or 4 cents a bulb. 



Foreign species offer greater temptations for display 

 than native kinds. The danger line is that between the 

 garden and wild-garden. This has already been indi- 

 cated for daffodils, which are the unquestioned favor- 



3007. A wild-garden. 



