34* 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



July, 190 7 



Arrowhead, a typical Dog plant whicn we ignore, i/ui 

 which Europeans buy from nurserymen 



the costliest item — $55 for a 1,000 bulbs — 

 but it is worth it. Lilium Canadense is 

 another charmer. 



IV. A HARDY EXOTIC BOG GARDEN 



Of course, for an "iris crank," a bog 

 garden is little short of Paradise. The 



the brilliant red Indian paint brush, one of many 

 flowers that will not grow in ordinary gardens, but 

 should in a bog garden. 



largest of all irises, the Japanese, demands 

 drainage in New England, and many people 

 complain that young plants of it will not 

 stand "wet feet." But I have seen plenty of 

 9-inch Japanese iris flowers in mean, nasty 

 wet clay. There are a dozen other species 

 of iris that are worth growing in boggy places. 

 The largest yellow flower you can get for the 

 bog garden is Iris Pseudacorus and it is a 

 good one. German irises are also strongly 

 recommended by the English bog gardeners, 

 but I should consider them too gardenesque 

 for a wild spot. 



Among foliage plants for such a garden the 

 three grandest types are the following : 



The giant reed (Arundo Donax) is some- 

 times recommended as the cheapest and best 

 tall permanent grass for the bog garden, but 

 it often winter kills in wet places. Ravenna 

 grass (Erianthus Ravennce) is supposed to 

 be a lover of wet ground, but I have un- 

 favorable accounts of it from New England. 

 Perhaps the safest would be eulalia. 



The famous Gunnera I have never seen, 

 except in pictures of streamside gardens, but 

 I believe it has the biggest leaves of anything 

 that grows out of the ground. Imagine a 

 specimen fifteen feet in diameter, eight feet 

 high and with leaves four feet across! Un- 

 fortunately, Gunneras are South American 

 plants, and therefore tender. They are 

 quite hardy in England if a layer of dry leaves 

 be placed among the stems during severe cold 

 spells and the Gunnera leaves bent down. 

 In early spring, also, the young growths have 

 to be protected by canvas-shading, or 

 matting. It is considered hardy at Ruther- 

 ford, N. J. Five-year-old plants cost $3.00. 



The umbelliferous type of vegetation 

 should be represented by some sort of giant 

 fennel, e. g., Ferula. All one has to 

 do to this is to keep it from going to seed, for 

 these splendid things are weedy. Her- 

 acleum lanatum is satisfactory at Philadelphia 

 and does not self sow too much. 



V. THE CHEAPEST AMERICAN BOG GARDEN 



The cheapest kind of bog garden is one 

 composed of the plants that grow wild in the 

 greatest quantity in your vicinity. The 

 public always wants to keep the forest portion 

 of a city park in its original wildness and the 

 same spirit, I hope, will assert itself strongly 

 in every locality where a crusade against 

 mosquitoes is going on. For the wet woods 

 and meadows have a flora of their own which 

 is well worth preserving. Spring beauties 

 by the million carpet the wet woods near my 

 home; Canada lilies, with their spotted red 

 or yellow bells glow everywhere among the 

 shadows; and in September there are sheets 

 of blue lobelias. Everybody knows and 

 loves these flowers, but we need to change 

 our viewpoint about the commoner and 

 humbler flowers. 



For instance, who loves skunk cabbage? 

 Only bees and artists and Thoreau. The 

 farmer thinks only of its coarse, summer 

 foliage and rank odor. Yet it is malodorous 

 only when bruised, the coloring of its hoods 

 is unsurpassed and it is undoubtedly the first 

 wildflower bf the year, preceding the hepatica 

 by a month or more. Moreover, it is actual- 



One of the best blue flowers of autumn. Save it when 

 you drain a swamp (Lobelia syphilitica) 



ly cultivated for its beauty in countries where 

 it is not common. Thirty-seven cents apiece 

 is the catalogue price in England. We shall 

 never be cultured until we can appreciate 

 the beauty of common, homely, every-day 

 things. 



A farming community has the right to 

 banish skunk cabbage from its village park, 

 if it wants to, but the day will come when 

 every city will have a bit of wet woods for 



HardhacK or steeple bush (Spiraea tomentosa). Deep 

 pinK or purple flowers in July or August. 



