30 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July, 1913 
The blue flags may well be used in more or less swampy situations, where among 
the stems of the tall-growing wild grasses their masses are peculiarly effective 
concealed behind these borders a bit of real wilderness, provided 
that on the wilderness side shrubs of the wild are used, instead 
of the usual garden specimens. But it can hardly be denied that 
in such proximity to the formal work of man, a wild garden 
is dangerously near to being unsuitably placed; and unless there 
are natural conditions which simply will not be denied such treat¬ 
ment—such as a ledge of rocks or a bog or a shady dell toward 
which the aforesaid lawn may lead—I should advise against in¬ 
troducing it. Tt is very evident, however, that no hard and fast 
rule can be laid down; each must choose for himself, 
and unaided except by a natural sense of fitness. 
Once certain that you may have a wild garden, the 
whole matter is much simpler. Natural conditions may 
make the site shady, or sunny, or moist, or rocky—or 
all four — or only two or three in one of their pos¬ 
sible combinations perhaps. The ideal conditions for 
a complete and ideal wild garden are supplied when 
there is a bit of each ; but it is possible to have a very 
lovely one with any of the four alone. Of course, 
an all sunny garden spot may be made over into a 
combination of sun and shade; and similarly a sunny, 
rocky site may be transformed into a shady or partly 
shady one, and a warm bog or marsh made into a cool 
one, by the planting of suitable trees. 
Of course, no plants, either shrubs or flowers, will 
be allowed to find their way into the wild garden un¬ 
less they are true wild flowers. And the fastidious 
gardener will use only wild flowers native to our own 
continent — preferably to his own particular part of the 
continent. This does not mean the limited display that 
it may seem to one not familiar with the treasures 
of almost any patch of woods not too near the city or 
large town — woods that have not been trodden over 
and robbed. It is by no means necessary to go into 
remote parts of the country for wild garden material 
anywhere ; but it is most necessary to learn to recognize 
the beauty which lies in so many of the despised plants 
of the roadside and field. 
If you do not know the things which grow wild, or 
have grown wild sometime, in the locality where your 
garden is to be, some local botany or list of the county 
flora will tell you what they are. Practically every 
community has such a list, or many of them ; for every¬ 
where there are botanists, amateur or professional, who 
have observed and written down their observations, 
and probably had them printed and filed in the archives 
of some local society, or possibly with the State library. It is, of 
course, a little trouble to hunt these out sometimes, and there 
will be much in such a list that has no garden merit. Yet I 
know of no more interesting undertaking for one who loves 
flowers and wishes to get the very most out of native species, 
than making a garden from the choicest things which such a 
botanical list offers. Such a garden is predestined to success 
too, for the plants will be hardy and happy in the locality which 
they have always haunted— provided, of course, that the right 
Where conditions are suitable for their growth the elders form clusters 
of white bloom and later of purple berries 
Among the early spring blossoming flowers are the bluets, whose deli¬ 
cate four-petaled blooms sprinkle the fields with patches of blue 
