2666 



PLANTING 



PLANTING 



ites for wild-gardening. Dutch hyacinths are inappro- 

 priate in long grass, and they soon perish. The Roman 

 hyacinth looks more like a wild flower, but it is better to 

 plant English bluebells or wood-hyacinths, known to the 

 trade as Scilla nutans and S. hispanica, and the prairie 

 hyacinth, Camassia esculenta. In addition to the for- 

 eign species commended, the lemon lily (Hemcrocallis) 

 is also adaptable, as its foliage harmonizes with long 

 grass. This species looks much better beside the water 

 than the orange day lily, which is better suited to the 

 roadside. The most beautiful group for the water-side, 

 probably, is the genus Iris. The famous iris meadow of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley, which has 

 inspired much American wild-gardening since 1908, is a 

 standard for combining the maximum of splendor with 

 good taste. There is no difficulty in making the Sibe- 

 rian iris look wild, or the tall yellow iris of Europe, but 

 the German and Japanese must be used with restraint, 

 if at all. 



It is safer to use large masses of native varieties than 

 of foreign ones, but it is easy to overdo bee-balm, New 

 England aster, butterfly weed, blue flag, and purple 

 cone-flower, unless they are softened by shade, mel- 

 lowed by distance, or veiled by long grass. Other Ameri- 

 can plants that are generally easy to manage on a large 

 scale are marsh marigold, large-flowered trillium, wild 



3008. A small wild-garden at the rear of a building. 



blue phlox, spiderwort, Lilium superbum, boltonia, 

 sneezeweed, sunflower, swamp rose mallow, and cardi- 

 nal flower. 



The ideal in the planting and after-care of a wild- 

 garden is to betray no evidence of man's work. In 

 planting bulbs, a good way is to scatter them on the 

 ground, arranging them with the feet in cloud-like out- 

 lines containing about fifty bulbs, and then plant them 

 where they lie, using a dibber or bulb-planter when the 

 ground has been softened by the rains. Another 

 method is to cut three sides of a sod with a spade, raise 

 the grass, and insert five to seven bulbs at irregular dis- 

 tances. In the border the common unit of planting 

 is a dozen plants; in the wild-garden fifty is a good 

 unit. This is about the minimum that can be called a 

 colony. 



Wild-gardening was formerly considered essentially 

 cosmopolitan in its spirit, as it still is in England. In 

 America, however, wild-gardening commonly means the 

 cultivation of American wild flowers, and the number of 

 pure American compositions has greatly increased. 

 Over $6,000,000 worth of work done in the Middle West 

 since 1901 has been inspired by the idea of restoration. 



Gardening within an inclosure is a matter of personal 

 privilege, but wild-gardening has developed a distinct 

 code of ethics, due largely to the Wild Flower Preserva- 

 tion Society of America and walking clubs, like the 

 Appalachian and Prairie, that do not permit their mem- 

 bers to pick flowers, and a growing appreciation of 

 wUd life - WILHELM MILLER. 



Bog-gardening. 



Bog-gardening depends for success on the distinction 

 between bogs and other wet or swampy places (Vol. 

 I, p. 519) . In the marsh or swamp, drainage is usually 

 fairly regular and free; in the true bog, drainage is 

 practically lacking or free only during the spring thaw. 

 Because of this lack of drainage there is in all bogs an 

 accumulation of sourness in the bog-water, which is 

 strongly acid and dark-colored in some glacial pot- 

 holes, more moderately so in some of the partly drained 

 bogs of the coastal plain regions of the country. There 

 is usually, but not always, a deficiency of lime in bog- 

 soils, and in nature there is a very large percentage 

 of mycorrhizal plants in them. The relation of the 

 mycorrhizal habit of obtaining food and the acidity of 

 the bog is a very delicate and complex one and little is 

 actually known of it; but experience has shown such a 

 relation to exist. 



The reason for having a bog-garden is that in it 

 many very interesting plants may be grown that could 

 not thrive in any other situation, and many ordinary 

 swamp plants can also be grown along its edges. For 

 those who have an undrained area or one poorly drained, 

 the problem of having a bog-garden almost solves itself. 

 But the demands of others who wish to grow the many 

 beautiful species that will become naturalized 

 only in such places, has led to the construction 

 of artificial bogs. These may be of any size 

 from a few square feet to comparatively large 

 areas, and methods of construction must vary 

 according to the nature of the subsoil. In 

 places where there is a layer of hard-pan and 

 the downward drainage is poor, it will be neces- 

 sary only to dig out the desired amount, fill in 

 enough blue clay to make the basin water-tight 

 and then put in the mixture described below. 



A more permanent and satisfactory type of 

 construction is to make the basin of concrete, the 

 walls and floor of which should not be less than 

 6 to 8 inches thick, to prevent the concrete from 

 cracking during frost. Waterproof the concrete, 

 and it is best to smear clay over the walls and 

 bottom because in all concrete mixtures there is 

 lime. The completed bog, whether of concrete or 

 merely scooped out of the ground, should be 2 feet 

 deep, its edges practically flush with the surrounding 

 ground. If of concrete, sods will easily grow over it and 

 the hard line of the rim may thus be completely hidden. 

 One should be sure, before filling with the mixture, that 

 the tank is water-tight, as though it were for a lily- 

 pond. The shape of the structure, whichever type of 

 construction is used, must be a matter of individual 

 taste. While informality is the essence of bog-garden- 

 ing, a "regular irregularity" is most to be fought 

 against. Observation of natural bogs, their shapes and 

 shorelines, will put the imaginative bog-gardener in 

 possession of all the suggestions needed. As an impor- 

 tant feature, it should be remembered that the drainage 

 from the surrounding region should be all in, not out. 



The mixture to go in the bog-garden is preferably one 

 that has come out of a cranberry or natural bog, 

 muck, twigs, water, slime and all. From such a mix- 

 ture, a host of very interesting bog-plants will spring up 

 the first year and these may be isolated in clumps after 

 the first season. A good plan when following this pro- 

 cedure is to let the inner part of the bog run wild, clear- 

 ing a strip of a foot or two all around the edges for the 

 cultivation of species needing, for exhibition purposes, 

 more open spaces. Provision should be made, either in 

 this strip or in any other open place in the bog for: (1) 

 a place where only sand and peat soil, mixed about half 

 and half, is found, to be used for certain plants that are 

 described in the lists following; and (2) some small 

 space of practically open water where the very inter- 

 esting bladder-worts may be grown. The latter situa- 



