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JUNE, 1908 
Wild gardening deals only with colonies, not sin- 
gle plants. Never plant less than a dozen of a kind. 
(False Solomon’s seal, Smilacina racemosa) 
bulbs are about a foot underground and 
mixed with shrub roots and that labor is 
worth at least $1.50 a day; that he pays the 
cost of boxing the plants and hauling them 
perhaps five miles over mountain roads, you 
will wonder how anyone can do it even if he 
has found a mine of hepaticas and trilliums. 
Don’t ask me his address, please, for my 
temper is none too good. ‘This is only one 
of the curiosities of wild gardening. Another 
is that you can buy from American seeds- 
men trillium bulbs that have been grown 
in Holland. 
The great charm of wild gardening in 
the woods is that you can paint pictures 
on a greater scale and with materials quite 
unknown to gardens, for a garden is typi- 
cally a sunny place and the choicest flowers 
of the woods demand shade as weli as 
coolness and never-failing moisture. For 
instance, Mr. Frank Seaman, at his summer 
home in the mountains not far from Ellen- 
ville, N. Y., has planted several thousand 
lady slippers collected by the farmers and 
their children, who were glad enough to 
gather them for three cents a plant. He 
scattered them beside a trail which follows a 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
stony hillside brook through the woods 
and there is not the slightest thing to show 
that they were planted. It is vandalism to 
move orchids into a sunny garden, but 
in the woods they are thoroughly at home, 
and in this case they will be protected long 
after the summer boarders have found the 
locality and taken every lady’s slipper from 
the neighboring woods. 
The most charming and distinctive effects 
in wild gardening will generally be produced 
by using in great quantity a dozen or fewer 
species that are most abundant in the neigh- 
borhood, rather than an endless variety 
of rare plants from all parts of the country 
— witness that delightful book “Our Coun- 
try Home,” by Frances Kinsley Hutchinson. 
If, however, you have no woods and no 
room for anything more than a border of 
wild flowers, let me make this suggestion. 
Try to make a beautiful picture, not a mere 
collection of varieties. Plant not less than 
a dozen clumps of a kind. Otherwise you 
will not get the effect of colonies. The 
loveliest flowers will look homesick if planted 
singly and the appearance of the whole 
will be merely botanical — not artistic, 
nor true to the spirit of nature: The two 
photographs at the bottom of this page, 
while they do not show the same species, 
nevertheless illustrate this principle. 
Just a word about some of the effects here 
pictured. The most exquisite is that of the 
bunch-berry, with the carpet of twin flowers 
growing near by. The bunch-berry (Cornus 
Canadensis) is a little brother of the flower- 
ing dogwood, growing only six inches high 
and having white flowers about two inches 
across, the showy part being the four 
bracts. There is a dainty whorl of leaves, 
having the characteristic venation of the 
dogwood family. It blooms in May or 
June, and in August the vacation seeker 
in Canada is delighted with its bunch of 
scarlet berries. 
The twin flower (Linnca borealis) is the one 
that the great Linnzeus loved the most and 
No matter how rare, costly, or beautiful, single 
plants do not make a picture, only a botanical collec- 
tion. (Large-flowered bellwort, Uvularia grandifiora) 
no wonder, for its fragrant, pink, pendulous 
bells borne in pairs look like chandeliers for 
fairies on the forest floor. I fear it is not 
possible to reproduce such a picture south 
of New England. The twin flower comes 
down as far as the mountains of Maryland 
and the bunch-berry is native as far south as 
Ohio, but both prefer the cold, northern 
woods. Moreover, the twin flower is costly 
and hard to get. The bunch-berry can 
be had for about $12 a hundred. 
Another charming woods flower is the 
false Solomon’s seal, which is cheap, and is 
easy to grow in a shady side yard. Of the 
three species the showiest is Smilacina 
racemosa, which will attain three feet when 
well grown. A good colony will be covered 
with feathery sprays of greenish white 
bloom in May or June and for at least two 
months you can have the daily pleasure of 
watching the berries grow and assume their 
lovely red markings. They are borne in 
large terminal clusters. This plant and 
the true Solomon’s seal are noted for the 
beautiful venation of their leaves and the 
arching grace of their stems, suggesting a 
bird about to take flight. 
The finest use for native asters is to line drives and woods with them as some 
country gentlemen are doing on their estates, using one species for half a mile 
An exquisite effect that can be duplicated only by the fortunate owners of & 
bit of woods. Bunch-berry and twin flower (Cornus Canadensis and Linnea borealis) 
