36 
House & Garden 
The pure white blos¬ 
soms of the trillium 
show like huge snow¬ 
flakes against the dark 
green leaves 
Drifts of bluets, exqui¬ 
sitely colored as bits of 
Dresden china and far 
more dainty, powder the 
grass 
F OR the present, flower 
gardening as a pastime 
has been relegated to the 
background of our desires. 
Nevertheless, more than ever 
before are relaxation and de¬ 
tachment from nervous strain 
made necessary. And where 
is one more responsive to the 
soothing processes of nature 
than in a garden of wild 
flowers ? 
An elaborate flower garden, 
besides assuming greater in¬ 
itial outlay and proportion¬ 
ately expensive upkeep, is 
more stimulating to the mind 
and suggestive of social func¬ 
tions than one filled with the 
less spectacular but more al¬ 
luring native wild plants. 
There is a shy delicacy about 
hepaticas, bloodroots and vio¬ 
lets infinitely more restful 
than the flaunting color 
masses of the peony or lark¬ 
spur. Moreover, they require little soil prepara¬ 
tion, no small advantage in these days of en¬ 
forced economy. 
Securing the Plants 
If convenient, the plants themselves may 
be collected with no more outlay than the time 
spent in gathering them in the woods, the fields 
and the wayside—a delightful form of recrea¬ 
tion. On the other hand it is possible to pur¬ 
chase them, and in some instances this will 
prove the cheaper in the end, as in the case 
where one would need help to gather them. 
As for maintenance, no garden is entirely 
self-sustaining, in spite of the much vaunted 
perennial borders, which are supposed to bloom 
year after year without attention. Plants must 
be taken up and thinned, divided and reset; 
others need staking or faded blossoms removed, 
and even in the hardy garden some varieties 
will disappear and must be replaced. How¬ 
ever, some plants will flourish with a minimum 
of personal attention under adverse conditions, 
and of such is the garden here described. 
Assuming the word garden to mean an en¬ 
closed space having a definite design, rather 
One would naturally expect violets in a wild flower 
garden, for their intense yet varying blue would be 
sadly missed 
THE GARDEN of WILD FLOWERS 
Simple and Unassuming, and Therefore Quite in Keeping 
with War Times, Is the Garden of Native Plants 
ELIZABETH LEONARD STRANG 
than the more or less naturalistic collection of 
plants usually implied by the term “wild gar¬ 
den,” picture to yourself a grassy vista stretch¬ 
ing between rows of blossoming apple trees, 
with daffodils clustered in the grass about 
their trunks!—at whose far end is a flight of 
shallow stone steps descending between masses 
of native trees and shrubs to a hidden garden 
near the brook! Here is certainly something 
very different from the ordinary wild garden. 
In a setting of twiggy growth whose exterior 
gives no hint of the beauties within, lies a grass 
panel framed by flowers. In a woodsy recess 
opposite the steps stands a weather-stained 
marble figure of Pan, upon which in spring¬ 
time the young leaves of the birch cast their 
dappled shadows. Blue violets wink from the 
dewy grass, and in the background blushes the 
Judas tree. Feathery green hemlocks frame 
the sides of the picture. Nearby are pussy wil¬ 
lows, symbolic of spring, and groups of little 
aspen trees, their trunks a color harmony of 
smooth creamy gray greens and warm browns, 
which the sunlight tinges with orange. 
In arranging the enclosing frame of trees 
and shrubs, care should be taken to preserve 
an informal effect. For that 
reason finely formed specimen 
shrubs set at regular intervals 
are not desirable. On the 
contrary, twiggy ones, col¬ 
lected if possible and set 
closely together as they are 
found in their native haunts, 
are much to be preferred. On 
the side next the flowers 
the ground may be spaded in 
the regulation manner. But 
on the outside, in order that 
no hard bed line may show, 
they should be tapered off 
into scattered groups set sin¬ 
gly in holes dug in the grass. 
As you approach, two seed¬ 
ling apple trees, planted 
solely on account of their 
bloom, blend happily with 
groups of birch and aspen, 
thus tying in the wild part 
with the cultivated orchard. 
Groups of gray birch, clus¬ 
tered thickly together as seen 
in their wild state, emphasize the four corners. 
Flanking the sides of the niche at the far 
side of the garden are bands of amelanchier, 
whose young leaves, downy gray, and abundant 
white blooms express the spirit of the place 
even more delicately than the larger and later 
flowering dogwood. The bloom of the red maple 
slightly overlaps the amelanchier, and they form 
a striking combination. 
Additional Shrubs 
Other spring shrubs appropriately facing the 
panel are the high bush blueberry, whose waxy 
bells and new leaves flushed with pink are 
succeeded by no less beautiful fruits covered 
with purplish bloom, and these in turn by 
autumn tints'of vivid red; the Magnolia glauca 
or sweet bay, whose small creamy white cups 
possess a shy fairy beauty and elusive fra¬ 
grance, unsurpassed by the more showy Asiatic 
magnolias; the flowering raspberry, dark green 
of leaf and pink of flower, is at its best in mid¬ 
summer; and next the grass, as an emphasis 
to the main axis, dwarf junipers—if the soil 
is dry—or, if the spot be a shady one, the more 
attractive ground hemlock. 
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