The foamy white flowers of the meadow rue are welcome in any combination and are the glory of the garden in early summer. 
These two pictures show it 
with peonies on the left and with the California poppy on the right 
Growing Wild Flowers from Seed—By Flora Lewis Marble, "=" 
A SURE WAY TO HAVE THE NATIVE FLOWERS WITHOUT EXTERMINATING THEM — BEGIN 
NOW TO COLLECT SEEDS FOR IMMEDIATE SOWING AND ENJOY THE FLOWERS NEXT SEASON 
“|p eeise are three reasons why you should 
start your wild flowers from the seed. 
First, if you gather only seeds from the 
woods, fields, and roadsides you leave 
the plants growing to make the places 
beautiful for the next passerby; second, at 
the end of a couple of years you will have 
many more plants in your garden if you 
plant seed than if you run the risk of trans- 
planting from the wild; third, there is a 
pleasure to be had from growing plants from 
the seed that can never be had from buying 
them, or digging them in the country. 
I find the surest way is 
to sow the seed as soon 
as it ripens. Light, rich 
woods dirt is the ideal soil 
for most seeds, though 
garden soil mixed with 
sand is successful. The 
ground should be kept 
moist and the hottest sun 
avoided. If the seedlings 
are treated. with the same 
respect shown to rarer 
plants they will amply 
repay by their lusty growth. 
A seedling contains all 
the elements of chance. 
I gather seed from a wild 
plant, the characteristics 
of which I know perfectly. 
The seedling grown in the 
garden may develop entirely different traits 
from its parent. Cultivation aids the sport- 
ing varieties to play the wildest freaks. 
A notable instance of this is a seedling 
from an obnoxious ragweed that crept into 
the garden. This young ragweed was a 
sport from the beginning. The parent plant 
had coarsely cut leaves. The seedling 
showed leaves minutely cut and crinkled 
like parsley. ‘This characteristic was shown 
in every leaf until the plant stood nearly four 
feet high, when it was as beautiful a rich 
green foliage-plant as one could wish for in 
The lemon lily introduced from Europe has earned itself a place among our natives 
62 
the centre of a bed. Then it bloomed, 
and the flowers were only common ragweed. 
productions, little and green. 
A touch-me-not hedge is one of the annual 
events in my garden. The seed of the yellow 
and spotted varieties was originally gathered 
from a brookside. Now it is thoroughly 
established in cultivation. It sows its own 
seed every fall and comes up early every 
spring. A lawn mower keeps the edge of the 
hedge straight. The plants grow toa uniform 
height, and bloom from July to frost. They 
like partial shade and plenty of moisture. 
The hedge ends in a 
clump of wild balsam 
apple. This fragrant flow- 
ering vine clambers over 
an unsightly gate and up. 
into anappletree. It, like 
the touch-me-not, is an 
annual. The seed was. 
gathered from a vine grow- 
ing in the wild and has 
been given to dozens of 
folks who admire it grow- 
ing in my garden and 
would never see it in its. 
wild place. 
Hibiscus is a shrub that 
is often found now in cul- 
tivation, though the seed 
can be gathered from the 
wild if one wishes, as sev-— 
' 
