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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



October, 1905 



A Portion of the Wild Lawn 



Later on, as the plan and garden grew, both through friends 

 and as the result of summer travel, contributions were 

 brought in from outside, until now, passing through the 

 garden, there will be found here and there, happily domesti- 

 cated, a little stranger from some distant clime. These, in 

 many instances, are peculiarly charming, serving as interest- 

 ing mementos ; but they are no whit more treasured than their 

 native neighbors. 



puts forth its best floral effort. No 

 prettier sight is to be seen in this 

 garden of the woods than a border 

 of pink and white foxgloves, stand- 

 ing among the rocks by the side of 

 a path, wisely nodding their heads 

 in answer to the passing breeze. 



But it is difficult to say which 

 flower in such a garden is the most 

 lovely, or to be the most highly 

 prized, each, in its turn, excelling 

 the last. 



And what a quantity of them 

 there are, and how closely they fol- 

 low in each other's footsteps ! 

 Earliest in the spring, when the 

 garden is seemingly only a wilder- 

 ness of rocks and bare soil, peeping 

 up among the rocks and around the 

 tree trunks will be whole families 

 of sober little Quaker ladies, or 

 bluettes, as they are commonly 

 called, with here and there a venturesome violet, a snow- 

 drop or a timid anemone. Later, when the ferns are back- 

 ing up out of the ground, for all the world like great brown 

 hairpins, the tulips and jonquils will come, with the arbutus, 

 the earliest spirea, the dogwood and the fruit blossoms. 

 After these tramp the wild azalea, the laurel, the rhododen- 

 drons, the iris, the columbine, the wild geranium and the 

 native honeysuckle. Meanwhile, the trees have been shak- 



Mrs. Richardson has not restricted her collection to what ing out their mantles, the ground has been putting down its 



are commonly known as wild flowers, but she has forbidden 

 admission to all save hardy plants. The common garden 

 annuals are given place elsewhere, and here only those sturdy 

 enough to stand an outdoor winter are made welcome. 



At first the flowers were planted in groups according to 

 their blossoming periods — that is, in a spring bed, a summer 

 bed and an autumn border — but almost directly it was 

 discovered that this left sections of the garden barren for a 

 large portion of the year and the order was abandoned for 

 one of general mingling. 



In the crevices of the rocks are placed bulbs, more than a 

 thousand, and tiny plants habitually clinging or peculiarly 

 suited to a stony soil; beyond these, on the crest, come the 

 more vigorous plants, according to 

 height, with lastly a row, or group, 

 of bushes as a changingbackground. 



Though of apparent careless con- 

 struction, an effort has been made 

 to bring into close relationship 

 flowers harmonious in color, whose 

 forms will also in some degree sup- 

 plement each other. The tall, con- 

 ventional iris is grown side by side 

 with the graceful, drooping colum- 

 bine; the wild geranium rises from 

 a bed of ferns ; the foxglove is 

 brought in conjunction with the 

 pink spirea. In some way the fox- 

 glove, which of recent years has 

 renewed its popularity, seems 

 peculiarly at home in the woods, 

 loosing the stiffness that it so often 

 affects in an ordinary garden, and 

 fitting in with its wild environment 

 with delightful grace. Possibly it 

 needs the leafy background — pos- 

 sibly it rejoices in its release from 

 captivity, its return to freedom. 

 Certainly it assumes a new air and 



carpet, and the Japanese maple has been stretching out its 

 red, dainty fingers to the sun. Then they come in a rush, 

 fairly falling over each other in their haste for expression, 

 regardless of the shortness of life, passing sometimes in 

 a single day, when no human eye has noted either their 

 entrance or their exit. Now come the native hydrangeas, 

 the foxgloves, the roses, the lilies and the ferns. Then, 

 by and by, we shall have the mallows, the brown-eyed susans, 

 the tall, native spirea, the gaudy tiger lilies and many-colored 

 asters, the goldenrod and the sumac. These familiar 

 friends and many others come and go — here to-day, 

 gone to-morrow — returning season after season as faithful 

 playmates keeping a tryst. Thus the wild garden, even 



The Entrance to the Garden, with its Ferns among the Rocks 



