INTRODUCTION 



The meaning of the term " wild garden" has been wil- 

 fully misinterpreted for their own ends by the advocates 

 of the artificial as opposed to the natural in garden 

 design. They have taken the dictionary synonym of 

 " disorderly " — the most misleading adjective that could 

 be selected — as descriptive of the condition of the wild 

 garden, whereas there is no sign of disorder in a thought- 

 fully planned and planted example, which has for its 

 pattern Nature in her most attractive guise. In the 

 flower-enamelled Alpine meadows there is no disorder, 

 and in the forests of the tropics — though superabundant 

 vigour is expressed in every growing thing — each giant 

 liana and huge frond fills its appointed place in the 

 picture without any suggestion of confusion. It is when 

 Nature reasserts her sway in spots which man has ceased 

 to cultivate that the tangle of brambles and nettles merits 

 the term " disorder." In the wild garden, for which 

 perhaps " untilled garden " would be a descriptive title 

 less liable to misconstruction, Nature's scheme is not 

 remodelled, but only supplemented by the addition of 

 such absent native plants or hardy exotic subjects as may 

 add attractiveness to the view. 



Some have an idea that wild gardening commences 

 and ends with the planting of daffodil bulbs in the grass, 

 whereas this is merely one of the many possibilities that 

 exist of beautifying the surroundings of the home by the 

 informal grouping of hardy plants where natural condi- 



A 



