4 THE BOOK OF THE WILD GARDEN 



these from a nurseryman and at once plant them out 

 where they are intended to spend the remainder of their 

 natural lives, is merely courting disaster. When they 

 are bought they should be planted in a well-tilled and 

 enriched border in the kitchen garden, or elsewhere, 

 and carefully attended to for a season or two, when, 

 having attained good size and robust health they may 

 be transferred to their permanent quarters. The best 

 plan is, however, to grow plants on from seed, cuttings, 

 or divisions in a reserve garden, and then to plant them 

 out when large enough. The situations having been 

 prepared for their reception, a dull day can be waited 

 for in the autumn, when the ground is moist, and with 

 good balls of soil round their roots they may be trans- 

 ferred to their appointed places without experiencing 

 the slightest check. Paeonies are best moved in Sep- 

 tember, and other herbaceous subjects while their leaves 

 are yet green, as then their roots are enabled to take 

 hold of the new soil before the winter. The planter 

 of the wild garden should guard against being over- 

 sanguine, and thus laying himself open to disappointment. 

 It is too much to expect that every introduction will 

 thrive. Climates, soils and other conditions vary so 

 much in the British Isles that the subject which flourishes 

 in one locality may very possibly languish or die in 

 another, for even in the tilled garden a plant that suc- 

 ceeds admirably in one spot may refuse, even with the 

 most careful culture, to become established in another 

 not many miles distant. 



One merit of the wild garden is that it needs no con- 

 tinual endeavour to keep it neat, a necessity in the case 

 of the beds and paths around the house. The larger 

 herbaceous perennials are allowed to wither and die in 

 the same manner as the native herbage. In woods, and 

 where there are deciduous trees, the falling leaves lodge 

 between the stems, and are there held to rot and enrich 



