Everyone should begin with robust species that 
anyone can grow and that are sure to make big, 
* strong masses like the native asters 
Right and Wrong in Wild Gardening—By Thomas McAdam, 
The seaside golden rod has large, thick, fleshy, 
shining leaves of great beauty. Endures rocks, sand, 
high winds, and salt spray. (Solidago sempervirens) 
It is vandalism to transplant lady slippers and 
other orchids from the woods to a sunny garden, 
They must have shade, coolness, and leaf mold 
New 
Jersey 
NOT A MERE TIRADE AGAINST PICKING WILD FLOWERS, BUT A SERIES OF PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS SHOWING 
CONSTRUCTIVE MEASURES YOU CAN AND OUGHT TO TAKE, ALSO HOW TO CREATE NEW LANDSCAPE EFFECTS 
[Evitor’s Note:— The middle of May is just the time when everybody in the North takes a stroll in the woods to gather wild flowers and when the greatest number of 
plants are dug from the shady, moist forest soil to die in 
your friends, and do something about it.] 
VERYONE naturally has at the start 
two wrong ideas about wild flowers 
and wild gardening. The first is that wild 
gardening is merely cultivating the plants 
and flowers that grow wild in our own country 
whereas it is also, and chiefly, a plan for 
growing the plants of other countries that 
are not suitable for garden cultivation in 
such a way that they will look like natives 
of our own country. For example, the fa- 
vorite plant for wild gardening in this coun- 
try is the poet’s narcissus, a native of the 
Mediterranean region. 
The second notion is that the only way 
to get wild flowers for one’s home grounds 
is to dig them from the woods, whereas 
every kind of wild flower you ever heard of 
or will ever care to grow is cultivated by 
nurserymen. In some cases these men 
can actually deliver plants to you cheaper 
than you can collect them. In all cases 
they can supply you with precious kinds 
that have been exterminated in your locality 
or never grew there. But the important 
thing is that these men propagate the plants 
—they no not rob nature or the public 
and, therefore, they furnish us a chance 
to test our own sincerity. For if we really 
love nature and respect the public’s rights 
we will never pick wild flowers and will 
hot, sunny gardens. 
dig wild plants only to save them from 
immediate destruction, as for instance 
when woods are being cut down by real estate 
dealers or others. Half a dozen postals 
will bring you catalogues offering an aggre- 
gate of 1,500 species of native perennials, 
shrubs, and trees. It is so hard to bring 
home the fact that the necessity of taking 
plants from the wild never exists, that I 
must resort to some picturesque form of 
expression. I, therefore, challenge any- 
one to name more than six kinds of wild 
flowers that are worth growing and are 
capable of cultivation which cannot be 
bought from some nurseryman or seedsman. 
Scarcely any species of wild flower is in 
danger of absolute extermination, but prac- 
tically all wild flowers are certain to be 
exterminated in the neighborhood of cities. 
Therefore, everyone who counts himself 
a good citizen should send a dollar to the 
secretary of the Wild Flower Preservation 
Society of America, care of the New York 
Botanical Garden, Bronx Park, N. Y., and 
learn about the various constructive meas- 
ures in which everyone can take a part, 
such as leaflets to school children, placards 
that persuade instead of merely command, 
and acquiring the best remaining localities 
for public parks. 
270 
If you call yourself a good citizen we hope you will read this short article now, discuss it with 
It is entirely proper, of course, to buy 
a wagon-load of maiden-hair ferns or wild 
flowers from a farmer and many now do so. 
If you have a piece of woods of your own, 
there is nothing more delightful than to 
fill it with large colonies of wild flowers, 
because the flowers of the woods, as a class, 
are more refined than those of the fields, 
while those of the roadside are coarse and 
weedy in comparison. You will never get 
anywhere if you go for a basketful at a time, 
because it’ is n’t human nature to resist 
bringing home a few of everything. The 
object of wild gardening is to get great 
glorious masses, to establish self-supporting 
colonies, dense in the centre and scattering 
at the edges, so that the species will seem 
to spread by seed in the direction of the 
prevailing wind. You can leave the trees 
just as they are, but the way to intensify 
the wildness of a piece of woods is to plant 
hepaticas and trilliums by the thousand, 
for the former are the earliest and the latter 
the largest flowers of spring in the woods. 
Look to the big things first, for variety will 
take care of itself. 
Hepaticas are worth $35 a thousand and 
trilliums $75, yet I know a man who offers 
trilliums for $2.50 and hepaticas for $1.50 a 
thousand. When you consider that trillium 
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