262 BULBS 



year. They do not seriously reduce the hay crop, and cutting the 

 hay does not harm them at all. 



But can foreign flowers ever look like wild flowers in America? 

 Certainly. The poet's narcissus'is not native to England, but who 

 knows or cares, save the botanist? The great thing for England 

 is that it multiplies of its own accord, producing myriads of fra- 

 grant, starry white blossoms in May, and bending before the breeze 

 with as much wild grace as any native flower you could name. 



So, too, there are dozens of beautiful foreign plants that have 

 run wild in America with little or no help from man, e. g., the 

 buttercup, sweet rocket, Johnny-jump-up, spiked loosestrife, wall 

 pepper, barberry, and marsh mallow. It comes as a surprise to us 

 to learn that these are natives, not of America but of Europe. 



The underlying principle is this: Any flower will look wild 

 if it can hold its own or multiply without care in the long grass or 

 in the woods. The costliest flowers in the world will not look 

 wild if they last only a season or two, or if there is any evidence of 

 the spade or watering pot. 



England is the home of wild gardening, and we must go there 

 to see how to make the most ravishing pictures with bulbs. I 

 cannot see that the English have any great climatic advantage 

 over us in respect to bulbs. They can grow a few kinds with which 

 we usually fail, e. g., the florist's anemone and ranunculus, the 

 winter aconite, European cyclamen, Grecian wind-flower, and 

 Apennine anemone. On the other hand, we can grow gladioli 

 better than they. Their early spring gives them twice as long a 

 season for daffodils as New England has, for they have many 

 varieties that will bloom in March. They have a commercial 

 advantage in being able to buy bulbs very cheaply, while we have 

 a big duty to pay. 



