188 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



A Garden of Wild Flowers in 

 a City Yard 



IT was just a narrow stretch of ground on 

 a city lot, shadowed by closely - built 

 houses, and a high, tight, board fence, but 

 the wild flowers flourished there, although the 

 conditions were very different from those of 

 their natural habitat. 



The beginnings of the garden were made 

 twelve years or more ago, before the danger 

 of the extermination of our native plants was 

 fully realized. The woods, however, were 

 even then receding before the growth of the 

 city of Rochester, making longer and longer 

 trips necessary to bring us to the haunts 

 of our wildwood friends. So, because we 

 loved them; because if we could not visit 

 them in their native retreats we still longed 

 to see them; because it was only a question 

 of time before many of them would be ruth- 



263. The best time to dig trilliums is in August, when 

 the " bulbs " are ripe 



264. The foam flower or false mitrewort (TiarelU 

 cordifoha). Color white 



lessly destroyed, when we found them at all 

 plenty we took a few of them up tenderly 

 with as much of the soil as possible and car- 

 ried them home. 



It was always a matter of surprise that so 

 many and such different species of plants 

 should flourish under such apparently un- 

 favorable conditions. The soil was naturally 

 rather heavy and poor, but many baskctfuls 

 of wood's soil and leaf mold were uncom- 

 plainingly tugged home and added to it, and 

 the leaves with which nature covered the bed 

 in the fall were allowed to decay and then 

 were carefully dug in around the roots of the 

 plants. Many of our native plants, and 

 especially the early spring flowers, readily 

 adapt themselves to the wild-flower garden, 

 but none of them will do this without more 

 or less care. 



The natural thing for everyone to do in 

 beginning a wild garden is to start in the 

 spring when everyone feels an impulse for 

 gardening. When hot weather comes, the 

 desire for gardening wanes, and many wild 

 gardens contain nothing but the delicate 

 shade-loving flowers of May and June. It 

 would be better if we all began with the sum- 

 mer and autumn blooming wild flowers which 

 are generally more robust and sun-loving. 

 These require less care than the spring wild 

 flowers, and few of them are in danger 

 of extermination. Naturally everyone who 

 begins a wild garden wants to start with lady- 

 slippers, and all the rare and delicate things. 

 These are precisely the things that are in 

 danger of extermination, and people ought 

 not to take them until they have had some 

 experience in gardening. 



The second commonest mistake is to bring 

 in the plants with insufficient balls of earth. 

 It is only fair to others that when we remove 

 rare plants from the wild to our gardens we 

 should take pains to duplicate natural con- 

 ditions as far as possible. Lady-slippers and 

 other orchids almost never thrive permanently 

 in gardens. Most of them require a com- 

 bination of shade and leaf mold and more 

 moisture than it is convenient or possible to 

 give. Moreover, it is likely that there are 

 certain undiscovered elements in the cultiva- 

 tion of hardy orchids. It is a great deal bet- 

 ter to leave the orchids in the wild and join the 

 Wild Flower Preservation Society of America, 

 than to bring lady-slippers into a garden 

 where it is impossible to duplicate natural 

 conditions. 



The glory of the garden was in the trillium 

 blossoms. Roots of white ones (Trillium 

 grandifloritm), were carried home year after 

 year, until several fine clusters adorned the 

 bed. One clump, though seemingly planted 

 in about the worst possible place, close up 

 against the board fence, increased in size 

 until last year it bore forty blossoms. When 

 these were in bloom, all at once, the plant was 

 a beautiful sight. Most of the flowers were 

 of very large size and of the purest white. 

 The red-flowered trilliums (T. erectum), 

 flourished also, making a pretty contrast to 

 the white ones, and the dark-red fruit made 

 the plants attractive after the blossoms had 

 withered. Trilliums are so beautiful and so 

 deserving of cultivation, that it is a pleasure 



to note that several dealers in native plants 

 catalogue them. They flourish better if 

 transplanted after the bulbs have ripened 

 than when taken up in bloom, and they 

 require two years to become really well- 

 established. 



The lady's slippers or cypripediums, were 

 the choicest occupants of the garden. The 

 greatest pains were taken in transplanting 

 them from their native homes, a ball of earth 

 being lifted with them and care being exer- 

 cised not to injure the roots. Leaf mold and 

 sand were mixed with the common soil, and 

 for several years they flourished finely. 

 They did best in a partial shade, and with 

 C. spectabile it was found necessary that the 

 ground should be kept moist all the time. 

 After a few years they gradually failed. 

 C. pubescens continued vigorous longer than 

 C. spectabile, but at last it also failed to put 

 in an appearance, and as both species were 

 becoming scarce in the woods, no effort was 

 made to replace them. C. parviflorum, with 

 its quaint little blossoms, survived the longest, 

 but last season only two or three stalks came 

 up, and these produced no flowers. Dealers 

 in native plants are now offering the cypri- 

 pediums for sale, and it is not necessary to 

 devastate the woods in order to obtain them. 

 I am quite convinced that they are not diffi- 

 cult of cultivation when natural conditions 

 are imitated and continued, but those already 

 accustomed to cultivation would undoubtedly 



265. The common blue flag of the swamps flourishing 

 in ordinary soil near the steps 



266. A pale-yellow-flowered lady's slipper thriving 

 temporarily in a city yard (Cypripedium pubescens) 



