62 WILD GARDENING 



In conclusion, I believe that the rich have four great oppor- 

 tunities for wild gardening the woods, meadows, roadsides, and 

 rocks. But in every American home there ought to be one spot 

 sacred to American wild flowers. No good effect can be produced 

 by mixing them with common garden flowers. They demand a 

 place apart. It may be a separate border. It may be a nook in 

 the shrubbery, where wildlings find congenial shade without being 

 robbed by rank bushes. It may be only a dark passageway lined 

 with ferns. But we all need this daily reminder of the precious 

 things we can get only from wild nature. And when every 

 American home has its wild garden America will be as home-like 

 as England. One reason why the English seem like one big 

 family is that every English home has its English plants. Have 

 we fewer wild flowers? Are they inferior in beauty? No, 

 and perhaps the quickest way to achieve an American style of 

 gardening is for every home to cultivate, as a token of our brother- 

 hood, some of the wild flowers that every American knows and 

 loves.* 



The classical work on this subject is "The Wild Garden" by W. Robinson, first published in 1881. This is invalu- 

 able for inspiration and method. We have no practical American work yet, but the chapter on wild gardening in 

 "The American Flower Garden" is valuable. The most complete analysis of American wild flowers worth cultivat- 

 ing is in Country Life in America for July, 1906, pages 326, 327, and 350 to 356. 



