HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July, 1913 
The wild azalea forms masses of delicately tinted and exquisitely shaped bloom 
that make a striking background for other garden effects 
conditions still prevail — and consequently they will 
be less susceptible to plant diseases and the bugs, great 
and small, that make plant life miserable, than any im¬ 
portations can possibly be. 
Among the commonest of American shrubs there is 
the Juneberry — Amelanchier Canadensis — which grows 
in open woods and along their edges, sometimes attain¬ 
ing the size of a small tree; the spice bush or benzoin, 
common to similar situations only liking more sun, 
perhaps; the viburnums, usually in the open; the cor¬ 
nels, which will do well in sun or shade; the button 
bush, which grows in swamps and very moist places— 
this is Cephalanthus occidentalis; the sumacs, elders, 
wild azaleas, and the laurel and rhododendron, in soil 
that is not limestone, and the wild roses which some¬ 
how are altogether undeservedly despised generally. 
These grow nearly everywhere and in all parts of the 
country, and are the possessors of great merit and a 
high degree of beauty throughout the year. 
Here is variety sufficient for any size of border 
planting — but to keep in the spirit of the wild Nature 
planting, remember that the number of varieties should 
be rather strictly limited, particularly with shrubs. 
Colonies grow together like sociable folks in a village 
community, with here and there an odd fellow a bit 
apart, but there is not much mingling of kinds. Masses 
of one, trailing into masses of another, thence back 
to the first is the usual scheme. 
The same grouping of the flowers should be fol¬ 
lowed, with each kind yielding courteously the land 
which another requires; each accompanying the other 
a little way perhaps into the other’s domain, but neither 
usurping the particular spot which suits exactly the 
other. I remember walking, not long ago, through 
a wood where the wild anemone actually carpeted the 
ground. The little path which led through must have 
been originally trodden at a later season, when the 
ground had dried out, for suddenly it brought me to the edge 
of the anemone carpet and up to a mass of skunk cabbage as 
bright as emeralds — and there was no way to go farther, for 
here was a bog. Scattered about on little tufted spaces in it 
were violets, and now and then a vagrant anemone; and the 
whole was as delightful an example of wild planting as I have 
seen in many a day. 
This is the sort of thing which should be kept in mind when 
planning and arranging a wild garden. It is not enough to 
In their natural state the wild violets and certain of the ferns require 
conditions of shade and moisture procurable in many gardens 
plant the one thing and the other; persist until they are growing 
just as they themselves would choose to grow. Where ferns 
would like to be, put ferns; where trilliums thrive, mass trilliums 
— and encourage every wild thing that comes in of itself, making' 
it so welcome, if it has any beauty whatsoever, that it will 
stay and multiply. 
A good selection for what may be called just the common, 
ordinary garden sort of soil and exposure consists of the 
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Among the taller growing plants the Joe-Pye weed lends itself readily 
to situations to which less hardy species would succumb 
