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HENDERSON’S PICTURESQUE GARDENS 
WILD GARDENS AND NATURALIZING 
Naturalizing hardy flowering species in wild gardens opens up 
for many people a new floral world of fascinating beauty, variety 
and interest. There are thousands of beautiful plants and bulbs 
from many parts of the earth, including hundreds of our native 
wild flowers, that may be enjoyed in this grouping, but have no 
chance of being seen in ordinary gardens, for many subjects adap- 
table for naturalizing would not thrive under the usual culture and 
others may be too insignificant individually, as Snowdrops and 
Violets, but when massed on a grassy bank create an impres- 
sion. Again, other plants may be much too weedy for the prim 
plots, as Asclepias, wild Sunflowers and Sweetbriers; yet when 
colonized in distant groups their effect in the landscape is charm- 
ingly picturesque. Or possibly some flowers, although suitable for 
the house garden, may be considered as having too short a period 
of bloom to justify their retention, such as Daffodils and Grape 
Hyacinths, but when brought in, their mass of nodding gold, and 
the clouds of blue, far surpass all other effects. 
Wild gardens do not in the least conflict with gardens con- 
tiguous to the house, for the situations required for both styles 
are entirely dissimilar. Wild gardening is the utilizing of ne- 
glected spots of ground usually found on all estates or lands of 
any size, — especially around the boundaries of lawns, in the half- 
open places between trees, among the shrubbery, along the fences 
and hedge -rows, where woodland meets the lawn, or adjacent to 
out-of-the-way paths and drives, on rocky slopes, in moist depres- 
sions, in shady lanes, the lowlands, along a thicket-fringed brook; 
in fact, there is a variety of hardy flowering plants, bulbs and 
roots adaptable for all sorts of situations, dry or moist, shady 
or sunny, and where once planted they "naturalize” — that is, grow, 
flower, spread and thrive year after year without further cost or care. 
Possibly wild gardens are better explained to the lover of na- 
ture by recalling to his memory those of nature’s planting, as illus- 
trated on the rocky hillside where thrive Arbutus, Columbines, Blue 
Bells, Pinxter Flower and Mountain Laurel, or in moist meadows 
where are gathered Wild Roses, Cardinal Flowers, Meadow Lilies and 
Blazing Star, or in the rich woods where we admire the Solomon’s 
Seal, Wake Robin, Bloodroot, Dutchman’s Breeches, Moccasin 
Flower, Sweet Bay; perhaps along the fence-rows in pastures bright- 
ened with Evening Primroses, Cone-Flowers, Buttercups, Blue Chic- 
ory, Goldenrod and Fringed Gentian; or it may be you remember 
going over shoe-top in the oozy bog among the Arrowheads, 
Pitcher Plants, Blue Flag, Pickerel Weed and Rose Mallows. 
Probably the most pleasing recollection of all is that of the Virgin’s 
Bower, Bittersweet and Fumitory clambering in picturesque free- 
dom over and through bushes and thickets, or the Virginia Creeper 
draping the big trees and old stumps with inimitable grace. 
The above are examples of nature’s untrained plots, but in estab- 
lishing our own, we create these bright pictures closer about us, 
within the environments of our home grounds, fields and woods, 
where pleasant rambles will lead us to delightful resorts, little sur- 
prises and an enhanced landscape, the soothing freedom of nature’s 
greens being emphasized and glorified by these scattered masses 
of naturalized flowers, their bright influence being carried into the 
misty gloom of the evergreens or the sun -flecked shade of the 
woodland vista. 
The secrets of success in wild gardening are simple and few. 
First of all, the proper selection of bulbs or plants must include 
those that naturally thrive in the situations in which you propose 
to grow them. Moisture-loving plants in a dry location, or vice 
versa, would prove a failure, but, as before stated, there are suitable 
subjects for any situation. Plants, roots, bulbs, and often seeds, 
both native and imported, adaptable for the various purposes are 
procurable from dealers in quantity at reasonable prices. 
The next consideration in planting nature’s nook should be a 
continuous succession of bloom; therefore, we must locate at inter- 
vals throughout the length and breadth of our paradise, spring-, 
summer- and autumn-flowering subjects, that it may be adorned and 
equally interesting during all seasons — as, stately white Lilies to 
succeed crimson Paeonies, and a ceaseless change from the spring- 
flowering Crocus to the scarlet-berried Berberis in winter. 
Then we must also consider habit of growth and color effects 
best adapted to form the living pictures. There should be a va- 
riety of colors, not mixed, but a mass of one thing; sheets of blue 
where the Wood Hyacinths tinkle their tiny bells in the semi-gloom, 
a little further on in the open glade a silvery wave of Poet’s Nar- 
cissus, and later a bold phalanx of fiery Cardinal Flowers, etc. 
