WILD GARDEN 



plenty of land and to all persons who dcnght in making 

 nature-like pictures \viih tlie help of plants. It may 

 .also be in keeping in many small and humble an-a-". 

 The plants in a wild garden require less care than those 

 cultivated 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 

 ta.ste, 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 t. <> 

 strong and crowded out many slender-habited plants 

 of delicate beauty. It seemed a pity to exclude thr-c 

 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, ami 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 r;.\m>i:x 



1977 



2724. Silphium perfoliatum. 

 Allied to the Compass Plant. Both are tall herbs, excelled for wild ganfc 



2725. Sacaline naturalized in a wild garden. 

 This hardy herb grows 8 to 10 feet high in a single season. 



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. .lohn'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 =re 

 tli' 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, anem. 

 columbines, moss pink, Jaok-in-the- 

 pnlpit, blood root. hepaticu, Solomon's 

 seal, dutchman's breeches, fern-, 

 trilliums and viol.-t-! Brldeotly 

 there is sufficient material for a wild 

 warden (imposed exclusively of 

 AniiTican plants, and naturally such 

 ma'. -rial is least, expen-ive. Hut the 

 wild garden spirit is esentiall) 

 mopolitan. Many of the exotics can 

 be raised from seed. f..r it is not 

 wan ih. -it all the subjects be 

 perennUL Some of the exotic mui- 

 j.'ins, for example, nre bold and 

 striking plant-: n.-arly all of them 

 are biennial, but they n-..w t 1 

 selv.-s. Finally there is a vast num- 

 ber of rare plants that are dear in 

 the heart <-f tin- collector, but their 

 names niran nothing '" the uniniii- 

 Thi- native -hrnbs nnd tree* 

 may also have their places in the 

 wild garden. 



