OLD TIME FLOWERS TO USE IN MODERN GARDENS 



LOUISE B. WILDER 



Early Gardeners Grew Plants for Their Uses and Lacked 

 Most of the Spectacular Plants that Embellish the 

 Border of To-day, but a Handful Endeared to Us 

 by Association and Sentiment Are Also Decorative 



FAIR-MAI DS-OF-FRANCE 

 Dainty and prim, and 

 holding their heads high 

 (Ranunculus aconitifolius) 



UCH time and space 

 could be happily spent 

 in championing the one 

 time friends of the early 

 flower gardens, and I trust that 

 modern gardeners will never de- 

 prive them of their place in the 

 sun. One would not, by any 

 means, want a garden made up 

 entirely of old-fashioned flowers, 

 nor does one wish to ignore the many fine introductions of 

 recent years, but simply to include in our gardens the best 

 plants of all times, not keeping plants simply because they 

 are new nor throwing out others because they are old. 



Every true gardener loves a novelty, for he has the collec- 

 tor's instinct. It very often happens however that old 

 friends are best; and it is certainly true that many of the 

 very old-fashioned flowers are still deserving of a high place 

 in our gardens, not only because of their undeniable beauty 

 and usefulness, but because of their long human past. 



A list of plants taken from the earliest known work on 

 gardening written in English — a poem entitled the "Feate 

 of Gardening," written by Ion Gardener about the middle 

 of the fifteenth century — comprises 97 different plants, 

 most of which are medicinal or pot herbs, laying little claim 

 to beauty. A few of the favorites of to-day are scattered 

 among them, however, but for these also we know were 

 found uses other than ornamental. In those strenuous days 

 flowers for beauty's sake alone were not anywhere enter- 

 tained. 



He names such friends of to-day as Hollyhocks, Primroses, 

 Cowslips, Foxgloves, Wallwort (Sedum acre), Sweet Violets, 

 Water Lilies, Sweet Woodruff, White Lilies, Honeysuckle 

 (called Honeysoke), and Scabiosa; and it is safe to assume, I 

 think, that whatever material uses these "dear delights" 

 may have been put to, they must also have gladdened the 

 hearts and rejoiced the eyes of those who looked upon them, 

 then as now. Master Ion's flowers may be said to be truly 

 old-fashioned, and it gives us a new feeling of respect toward 

 familiar blooms to know that they are of such ancient and 

 honorable lineage. 



BUT there are other lovely and useful plants included in 

 the old poet-gardener's list that are very seldom seen 

 in gardens nowadays. One of these is Hyssop (Hyssopus 

 officinalis), a woody, spreading plant about two feet in height, 

 with small dark, almost evergreen leaves and many spikes 

 of deep blue flowers. In Ion Gardener's day it was a medi- 

 cinal herb of great powers, but as time passed and men learned 

 to garden finely, Hyssop was requisitioned to bind about the 



THE RAGGED ROBIN 

 Or Cuckoo Gilliflower (Lych- 

 nis Flos-cuculi) — though not 

 Shakespeare's Cuckoo-flower 



little beds that made up the 

 quaint patterns of Elizabethan 

 gardens. Germander, Thyme, 

 Marjoram and Lavender were 

 also used for the same purpose, 

 but Hyssop was the favorite 

 because it was so dark and 

 shining and because it sub- 

 mitted to close and tidy clip- 

 ping. It is not thus, however, 



that I would advocate its use to-day, but as a plant for 

 the hardy border or wall top. For this purpose it is very 

 valuable. Its foliage remains in good condition throughout 

 the season and the spikes of "gaping blewfloures" are pro- 

 duced over a very long period in midsummer. If plants 

 of Hyssop are not easily come by, seed is to be found in the 

 vegetable sections of most seedsmen's catalogues, under Sweet 

 and Medicinal Herbs, and it is no trouble at all to raise a fine 

 stock of sturdy little plants out of doors in spring. Parkin- 

 son, in his " Paridisus in Sole" (1629) mentions white Hyssop, 

 and golden, russet and double Hyssop as well, but though I 

 have searched diligently, I have never found but the one. 



Southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum), known also as 

 Lad's Love, Old Man's Beard, Smelling-Wood, Maiden's 

 Ruin, is a fine old plant that has made its home in gardens 

 for many hundreds of years. Its gray, woody branches are 

 covered with hoary foliage, delicate and feathery in texture 

 and of a most balmy and invigorating fragrance. I have 

 never known it to bloom, but the beauty of its foliage is 

 quite sufficient for any one. The hoary bushes seem to be- 

 long naturally with old-fashioned white Roses; with the hand- 

 some white Provence Rose, Madame Hardy, with white 

 Moss Roses, or with Madame Plantier of a later generation 

 but great loveliness. The great white Lily too, is a delight- 

 ful companion for this old plant, and these two have been 

 closely associated for as long as there have been gardens. 

 The traveller, John Josselyn in "New England's Rarities 

 Discovered" (1674) lists Southernwood as "no Plant for this 

 Country," coupling it with "Rosemary and Bayes" that are 

 undoubtedly tender. But in my cold New York garden, 

 where the thermometer falls below zero every winter, South- 

 ernwood has lived for years. 



Besides the Madonna Lily, one other of this noble race has 

 a place on very early plant lists. Lilium martagon was 

 introduced to cultivation about 1596. But the Tiger Lily 

 usually regarded as very old-fashioned was brought from 

 China as late as 1 804 ! 



Ion Gardener also names Garden Heliotrope (Valeriana 

 officinalis) in his poem, and while this plant is still grown to 

 some extent, I find many who do not know it. It blooms 



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