Cornell Hniversity Ribrary BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henry W. Sage 18S9QI ee — 46/1877) Corl si SB 454.R7 189 the naturalization an ll ii ; 3 Combe in west country with PRIMROSES, KINGCUPS, and DAFFODILS. THE WILD GARDEN or the Naturalization and Natural Grouping of Hardy Exotic Plants with a Chapter on the Garden of British Wild Flowers ‘ By W. ROBINSON Author of ‘The English Flower-Garden’ Fourth Fdition Illustrated by ALFRED PARSONS ‘Adspice quos submittat humus formosa colores Ut veniant hederae sponte sua melius’ PROPERTI US London John Murray Albemarle Street m.dccc.xciv ic) 454 RI \e74 aa Oxford HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY INSCRIBED TO THE VERY REVEREND S. REYNOLDS HOLE, D.D. DEAN OF ROCHESTER BY HIS FRIEND THE AUTHOR CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PAGE EXPLANATORY : ‘ ‘i : . 3 j ‘ I CHAPTER II. EXAMPLE FROM Harpy Butgs 1n Grass or Lawns oR MEapDows . a ‘ : « . ; : 12 CHAPTER III. EXAMPLE FROM THE FORGET-ME-NOT FamILy . . 24 CHAPTER IV. EXAMPLE FROM THE GLOBE FLOWER ORDER. . 30 CHAPTER V. PLANTS CHIEFLY FITTED FOR THE WILD GaRDEN - 43 CHAPTER VI. Ditcnes, SHADY Lanes, CopsEs, AnD HEDGEROws . 48 CHAPTER VII. CLIMBERS FOR TREES AND BUSHES . é 68 Contents CHAPTER VIII. SHRUBBERY, PLANTATION, AND Woop CHAPTER IX. Woop.ianp Drives anp Grass WALKS CHAPTER X. Tue Brook-sipE, WaTER aND Boc GaRDENS CHAPTER XI. Witp GarpENInG on Watts, Rocks, or Ruins CHAPTER XII. WILD AND OTHER Roses IN THE WiLD GARDEN CHAPTER XIII. Some RESULTS CHAPTER XIV. Harpy Exotic FLlowerinc PLants FOR THE WILD GARDEN CHAPTER XV. SELECTIONS OF Harpy Exotic PLants FOR THE WILD GARDEN CHAPTER XVI. Tue GARDEN OF BRITISH WILD FLOWERS AND TREES. INDEX ix PAGE 75 94 100 114 I19 129 197 2Ir 275 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + PAGE Combe in west country with Primroses, Kingcups, and Daffodils. i oS hes oe ee Frontispiece Columbines and Gereninte in meadow-grass . i . Xiii A Golden Rod . : : . Xvi Lilies coming up through caipel of White Arabis . xvii Spirzeas, bushy and herbaceous ~ ow , XX Large-flowered Meadow Rue . ‘ I Night effect of Large Evening Primrose in the Wild Garden To face page 4 Blue-flowered Composite (Mulgedium Plumieri) . ; 8 The Mountain Clematis .. : II Star of Bethlehem in Grass ; ; ‘ . 2 The Bell-flowered Scilla, naturalized ‘ : 5 14 Portion of field of Poet’s Narcissus in bloom To face page 22 ‘Caucasian Comfreyin shrubbery .. 24 The Cretan Borage (Borago Cretieca) 4 28 Group of Globe flowers (Trollius) . f 30 The White Japan Anemone in the Wild Garden ‘ 32 Anemones in the Riviera . To face a 34 The Green Hellebore in the Wild Ganien 38 Tall Perennial Larkspurs, naturalized in Shrubbery (1878) 39 Double Crimson Pzeonies in grass at Crowsley Park 4 Type of erect Composite for the Wild Garden 43 The Giant Scabious (Cephalaria procera) ‘ 44 Giant Cow Parsnip. ‘ ‘ To face page 44 Foliage of Teazle, on hedechank in spring . ‘ . 48 List of Illustrations xl PAGE The large white Bindweed 50 The Nootka Bramble . 3 , 52 The Yellow Allium (A. Moly) naturalized 54 Large White Clematis on Yew tree at Great Tew . 69 Climbing shrub (Celastrus), isolated on the grass. qI A Liane in the North. Aristolochia and Deciduous Cypress 74 A beautiful accident.—A colony of Myrrhis odorata 80 The Lily of the Valley in copse ‘ 87 Colonies of Poet's Narcissus and Broad- lesved Saxifraze To face page 92 Solomon’s Seal and Herb Paris, in copse by streamlet . . 100 Colony of hardy exotic Flowers, naturalized i brook-side . 102 Cyperus longus . : . 106 The Cape Pond Weed in an ni Basligh, ditch i in winter 108 Day Lily by margin of water. . 10g Marsh Marigold and Iris in early spring ‘ Ilo The same spot as in opposite sketch, with dturgrowth of Iris 111 Partridge Berry (Gaultheria) . 3 5 113 Arenaria Balearica, self-planted on wall at Great Tew : 114 Cheddar Pink, Saxifrage, and Ferns, on cottage wall at Mells 115 The Yellow Fumitory (Corydalis lutea) on wall A 117 Purple Rock Cress (Mountains of Greece) .. 118 Wild Rose growing ona Pollard Ash in Orchardleigh Park, To face page 120 White Climbing Rose scrambling over old Catalpa Tree To face page 124 Climbing Rose on grass... 128 Autumn Crocuses in the Wild Garden 129 Crane’s-bill, wild, in grass . 131 Tiger Lilies in Wild Garden at Great Tew To face page 134 Large-flowered Clematis . : i ‘ . . 138 Sun Roses (Cistus) . To face page 140 WoodruffandIvy ... . 144 Snowdrops by streamlet . 145 The Monkshood, naturalized. : : 147 The White Narcissus-like Allium, in the orchards of Provence 149 Siberian Columbine in rocky place . : 153 Tall Asphodelincopse. ‘ 154 xii List of Illustrations PAGE The foliage of the Meadow Saffron in Spring... 160 The White-flowered European Clematis (C. erecta) 161 Cyclamens in the Wild Garden o£ -§ 4 163 A South European Bindweed . oo owe Ly . 164 A Sea Holly; Eryngium . 167 Groups of Siebold’s Plantain oe é 2 8 ; 170 A hardy Geranium. 172° Everlasting Pea, creeping up stem in alanib hers : : 178 Type of fine-leaved umbellate plants seldom grown in gardens 180 The Bee Balm, Monarda. American wood plant . 5 . 181 The Great Japan Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) . 184 Phlomis . 185 The tall Ox-eye Date (Pyrethruin sefodinain) 186 The Great Reed of Southern Europe (Arundo Donax) 187 Telekia. Type of the larger Composites . : 192 Group of Tritoma, in grass see Lake se 193 Tall Mullein ‘ 195 Large White ene ere into wide masses Gua ghade 196 Ophrys, in grass. -: : . 197 Large-leafed Rockfoil in the Wild Carden i 210 Robinson’s Blue Windflower . : : ‘ . 216 Native Sun Rose in Somerset Combe : 222 The Field Rose (R. arvensis) . : ; To face page 228 Natural growth of umbellata plants . : ; . 239 The Vernal Gentian. (Engraved from a phofogragh 244 Snowflake (Longleat) ; ‘ 5 . 253 Giant Horse-tail (Equisetum Telmateia) . . 256 White Willow in Hampshire . qT 0 face page 258 Crack Willow in Kennet Valley j : . 263 The Black Poplar in the Kennét Valley qT 0 face page 268 COLUMBINES and GERANIUMS in meadow-grass. PREFACE WHEN I began, some years ago, to urge the cause of the innumerable hardy flowers against the few tender ones, put out in a formal way, the answer frequently was, ‘We cannot go back to the mixed border’— that is to say, the old way of arranging flowers in borders. Knowing, then, a little of the vast world of plant beauty quite shut out of our gardens by the ‘system’ in vogue, I was led to consider some ways in which it might be brought to our gardens; and among them was the name and scope of the ‘Wild Garden.’ I was led to think of the vast numbers of beautiful hardy plants from other countries -which XIV Preface might be naturalized, with a very slight amount of trouble, in many situations in our plantations, fields, and woods—a world of delightful plant beauty that we might in these ways make happy around us. We can not only grow thus a thousandfold more lovely flowers than were seen in flower gardens, but also many which, by any other plan, have no chance of being seen in gardens. In this edition, by the aid of drawings, I have tried to tell what the system is ;—if I were to write a book for every page that this contains, I could not suggest the many beautiful aspects of vegetation which the Wild Garden may give us. The illustrations are, with a few exceptions, the work of Mr. Alfred Parsons, and the drawing and engraving have been several years in execution. They are after nature, in places where the ideas expressed in the first small edition of the book had been carried out, or where accident, as in the case of the beautiful group of Myrrh and white Harebells at Cambridge, had given rise to beautiful plant pictures. I cannot too heartily thank him for the skill which he devoted to the drawings, and for his success in showing the motive of the ‘Wild Garden.’ There has been some misunderstanding as to the term ‘Wild Garden.’ It is applied essentially to the placing of perfectly hardy exotic plants under conditions Preface XV where they will thrive without further care. It has nothing to do with the old idea of the ‘Wilderness.’ It does not mean the picturesque garden, for a garden may be highly picturesque, and yet in every part the result of ceaseless care. What it does mean is best explained by the winter Aconite flowering under a grove of naked trees in February ; by the Snowflake, tall and numerous in meadows by the Thames side; by the blue Lupine dyeing an islet with its purple in a Scotch river; and by the blue Apennine Anemone staining an English wood blue before the coming of our blue bells. Multiply these instances a thousandfold, given by many types of plants, from countries colder than ours, and one may get a just idea of the ‘Wild Garden.’ Some have thought of it as a garden run wild, or sowing annuals in a muddle; whereas it does not interfere with the regulation flower garden at all. I wish it to be kept distinct in the mind from the various sorts of hardy plant cultivation in groups, beds, and borders, in which good gardening and good taste may produce many happy effects; distinct from the rock garden in its many aspects—all asking for skill and care; from the borders reserved for choice hardy flowers of all kinds; from the hardy sub-tropical garden or that of hardy plants of fine form; from the ordinary type of ‘Spring Garden ;’ and from our Xvi Preface own beautiful native flowers, delightful in our woods and fields and hedgerows. In country gardens, where, on the outer fringes of the lawn, in grove, park, copse, or by woodland walks or drives, there is often ample room, fair gardens and new and _ beautiful pictures may be formed by its means as the swift springs and summers pass. May 28, 1881. 4 GOLDEN ROD. LILIES coming up through carpet of WHITE ARABIS. FOREWORDS TO NEW EDITION THE wild rose has given her petals to the winds for over twenty summers since this book with its solitary wood cut first saw the light, and if these many years give me any right to judge my own book, T may sav that much experience since tells me that the ‘Wild Garden’ desericd to live, and that such ideas carrted out with sone regard to the soil and other things affecting plants in cach place, may be fertile in making our open air gardens more artistic and delightful. The best thing I have learnt from my own wild garden- me ts that we may grow without care many lovely early bulbs in the turf of meadows, t.e. fields mown for hay, without in the least interfering with the use of the fields. b Xviil Forewords to New Edition The Blue Anemones, Crocus, Snowdrops, Narcisses, Snowflakes, Grape-Hyacinths, Dog’s-tooth Violets, Stars of Bethlehem, Fritillaries, St. Bruno’s Lily, Snow-glories, Wild Hyacinths, Scilla, and Wild Tulips best fitted for this early-gardening in the meadow turf, wither before the hay ts ready for the scythe, and we do not find a trace of the leaves of many of them at hay time. Many of the plants of the mountains of central Europe and also of those of what we call the south and east, such as those of Greece and Asia Minor, bloom with me earlier than our own field or woodland flowers. Our feebler sun awakes them in the snowless fields, and so we enjoy many spring flowers while our grass is brown. And if they come so early in the. cool and high ‘ forest range’ in Sussex they will be no less early in the warm soils asin Surrey, or in the many valley sotls—sheltered as they often are by groves and banks of evergreens. As nearly every country house ts set in meadows it is easy to see what a gain this is, not only for its beauty but because it lets us make an end of the repeated digging up of the flower garden for the sake of a few annual and other spring flowers—themselves to be removed just in the loveliest summer days. This spring [ saw some evidence of what bold wild- gardening may give us in its effects on the beauty of landscape views. The picturesque view from Narrow- water House near Newry, across the park to the bay and the mountains that guard it, was much enhanced during March and the early part of the present spring Forewords to New Edition XIX by the great cloud of daffodils covering a mound in the foreground. The daffodils (the double kind so common in Ireland) spread over the mound in clouds, here and there massed close. It was not only good as a picture but as a lesson in the planting in the wild-garden of such flowers—which are often dotted about separately, much as fruit trees are in an orchard, instead of being held together in masses and bold groups, running out here and there into smaller ones. Many of the reviewers of the book did not take the trouble necessary to see its true motive, and some of then confuse tt with the picturesque garden, which may be formed in many costly ways, whereas the idea of the wild garden 7s placing plants of other countries, as hardy as our hardiest wild flowers, in places where they wili flourish without further care or cost. As I first used the word ‘wild garden’ in this book and in the ‘Field’ newspaper, where some of the articles appeared many years ago, | wish to make tts aim and meaning clear. I am happy to be able to illustrate the book with good wood engravings in these days of many ‘processes,’ often called ‘improvements, in book illustration, but which, so far, are its ruin. The few cuts done in the former edition by such processes have been re-engraved on wood for this. Some of the ideas in the book, such as the beautiful effects one may get in hedgerows and by grass-walks, are not illustrated as I hope they will be in future editions. XX Forewords to New Edition Als good examples of wild.gardening are likely often to lie out of my own path, and as distinct and unlooked Jor results will often arise, I should be grateful to all who will tell me of them in the hope of making the book more suggestive in future, as among the ways of escape from the death-note of the pastry-cook’s garden there 1s none more delightful to all who have any grass or fields or woods about them. W. R. April 18, 1894. SPIRAAS, bushy and herbaceous. THE WILD GARDEN GHAPTER I. EXPLANATORY. ABOUT a generation ago a taste began to be shown for placing numbers of ten- der plants in the open air in summer, to produce showy masses of colour. The plants were mostly from sub- tropical lands; placed annually in the open air of our summer, and in fresh earth, every year they x grew and flowered abundantly ‘until cut down by the first frosts. . The showy colour of this system (x we sei a 1 esi oe was very attractive, and eo since its intro- duction there has been a gra- dual rooting out of all the old favourites WERE, LARGE-FLOWERED MEADOW RUE; type of plant mostly excluded A from the Garden. 2 The Wild Garden in favour of this ‘bedding’ system. This was car- ried to such an extent that it was not uncommon, indeed it was the rule, to find the largest gardens in the country without a single hardy flower, all energies being devoted to the few exotics for the summer decoration. It should be borne in mind that the expense for this system is an annual one; that no matter what may be spent in this way, or how many years may be devoted to perfecting it, the first sharp frost of November announces yet further labours. Its highest results need hardly be described ; they are seen in all our public gardens ; our London and many other city parks show them in the shape of beds filled with vast quantities of flowers, covering the ground frequently in a showy way. I will not here enter into the question of the merits of this system; it is enough to state that even on its votaries it is beginning to pall. Some are looking back with regret to the old mixed- border gardens; others are endeavouring to soften the harshness of the bedding system by the intro- duction of fine-leaved plants, but all are agreed that a mistake has been made in destroying all our old flowers, from Lilies to Hepaticas, though few have a fair idea of the numbers of beautiful hardy plants which we may gather from every northern and temperate clime to grace our gardens under a more artistic system. My object in the Wild Garden is now to show how we may have more of the varied beauty of hardy Explanatory 4 flowers than the most ardent admirer of the old style of garden ever dreams of, by naturalizing many beautiful plants of many regions of the earth in our fields, woods and copses, outer parts of pleasure grounds, and in neglected places in almost every kind of garden. I allude not to the wood and brake flora of any one country, but to that which finds its home in the vast hill-fields of the whole northern world, and that of the hill-ground that falls in furrowed folds from beneath the hoary heads of all the great mountain chains of the world, whether they rise from hot Indian plains or green European pastures. The Palm and sacred Fig, as well as the Wheat and the Vine, are separated from the stemless plants that cushion under the snow for half the year, by a zone of hardier and not less beautiful life, varied as the breezes that whisper on the mountain sides, and as the rills that seam them. They are the Lilies, and Bluebells, and Foxgloves, and Irises, and 1d Windflowers, -and Columbines, and Violets, and Crane’s-bills, and countless Pea-flowers, and Moon Daisies, and Brambles, and Cinquefoils, and Eveniig Primroses, and Clematis, and Honeysuckles, and Michaelmas Daisies, and Wood Hyacinths, and Daffodils, and Bindweeds, and Forget: me-nots, and blue Omphalodes, : and nd Primroses,and Day Lilies, and Asphodels, and St. Bruno’s Lilies, and the myriads of plants which form the flora of the northern or temperate regions of vast continents. B2 4 The Wild Garden It is beyond the power of pen or pencil to picture the beauty of these plants. Innumerable and infinitely varied scenes occur in all northern and temperate regions, at many different elevations, the loveliness of which it is impossible to portray; the essential thing to bear in mind is that the plants that go to form them are hardy, and will thrive in our climate as well as native plants. Such beauty may be realized in every wood and copse and shrubbery that screens our ‘trim gardens,’ Naturally our woods and wilds have no little loveliness in spring; we have here and there the Lily of the Valley and the Snowdrop, and everywhere the Primrose and Cowslip; the Bluebell and the Foxglove take possession of whole woods ; but, with all our treasures in this way, we have no attractions in or near our gardens compared with what it is within our power to create. There are many countries, with winters colder than our own, that have a rich flora; and by choosing the hardiest exotics and planting them without the garden, we may form garden pictures. To some a plant in a free state is more charming than any garden denizen. It is taking care of itself; and, moreover, it is usually surrounded by some degree of graceful wild spray—the green above, and the moss or grass around. Numbers of plants of the highest order of beauty may be at home in the spaces now devoted to rank grass and weeds, and by wood walks in our shrubberies. Night effect of LARGE EVENING PRIMROSE in the Wild Garden (GEnothera Lamarckiana). Explanatory 7 Among my reasons for thinking wild gardening worth practising by all who wish our gardens to be more artistic and delightful are the follow- ing :— First, because hundreds of the finest hardy flowers will thrive much better in rough places than ever they did in the old-fashioned border. Even small plants, like the ivy-leaved Cyclamen, a beautiful plant that we rarely find in perfection in gardens, I have seen perfectly naturalized and spread all over the mossy surface of a thin wood. Secondly, because they will look infinitely better than they ever did in formal nal beds, in “consequence of fine-leaved | plant, ‘fern, and fic flower, and climber, grass and trailing shrub, relieving each other in delightful ways. Many arrangements will prove far more beautiful than any aspect of the old mixed border, or the ordinary type of modern flower-garden. Thirdly, because no disagreeable effects result from decay. The raggedness of the old mixed border after the first flush of spring and early summer bloom had passed was intolerable to many, with its bundles of decayed stems tied to sticks. When Lilies are sparsely dotted ed_through masses of shrubs, their flowers are ‘admired more than if they were in isolated showy masses; when they ca out of of bloom a they are un- when in rigid salicvel poreg: in | borders, “&e. In a semi-wild state the beauty of a fine plant will show 8 The Wild Garden when at its height; and when out of bloom it will be followed by other kinds of beauty. Fourthly, because it will enable us to grow many plants that have never yet obtained a place in our ‘trim gardéns.’ I mean plants which, not so showy as man: ns, are never seen_ therein. The flowers of many of these are of great beauty, especially A tuft of one of these in a border may not be thought worthy of ip... its place, while in some wild glade, as a little 7 CANE Ne HINES aoe VAN ell aah WES BLUE-FLOWERED COMPOSITE PLANT, fine foliage and habit; type of noble plants excluded from gardens. (Mulgedium Plumieri.) exquisite. There are IP colony, grouped natur- ally, its effect may be many plants too that, grown in gardens, are no great aid to them—like the Golden Rods, and other plants of the great order Com- positee, which merely overrun the choicer and more beautiful border-flowers when planted amongst them. These coarse plants would be quite at home in copses and woody places, where their blossoms might be seen or gathered in due season, and their vigorous vegetation form a covert welcome to the game-preserver. To these two groups might be added plants like the winter Heliotrope, and many others which, while not without when seen in numbers. Explanatory 9 use in the garden, are apt to become a nuisance there. For instance, the Great Japanese Knotworts (Polygonum) are certainly better planted outside of the flower-garden. Fifthly, because we may in this way settle the question of the spring flower-garden. Many parts of every country garden, and many suburban ones, may be made alive with spring flowers, without inter- fering at least with the flower-beds near the house. The blue stars of the Apennine Anemone will be enjoyed better when the plant is taking care of itself, than in any conceivable formal arrangement. It is but one of hundreds of sweet spring flowers that will succeed perfectly in our fields, lawns, and woods. And so we may cease the dreadful practice of tearing up the flower-beds and leaving them like new-dug graves twice a year. Sixthly, because there can be few more agreeable phases of communion with Nature than naturalizing the natives of countries in which we are infinitely more interested than in those of which greenhouse or stove plants are native. From the Roman ruin— home of many flowers, the mountains and prairies of the New World, the woods and meadows of all the great mountains of Europe; from Greece and Italy and Spain, from the hills of Asia Minor; from the alpine regions of the great continents—in a word, from almost every interesting region the traveller may bring seeds or plants, and establish near his. 10 The Wild Garden home living souvenirs of the various countries he has visited. If anything we may bring may not seem good enough for the garden autocrat of the day, it may be easy to find a home for it in wood or hedgerow; I am fond of putting the wild species of Clematis and other exotic climbers and flowers in newly-formed hedgebanks. Moreover, the great merit of permanence belongs to this delightful phase of gardening. Select a rough slope, and embellish it with groups of the hardiest climbing plants,—say the Mountain Clematis from Nepal, the sweet C. Flammula from. Southern Europe, ‘Virginian creepers,’ various hardy vines, Jasmines, Honeysuckles, and wild Roses and briers. Arranged with some judgment at first, such a colony might be left to take care of itself; time would but add to its attractions. Some have mistaken the idea of the wild garden as a plan to get rid of all formality near the house ; whereas it will restore to its true use the flower- garden, now subjected to two tearings up a year— i.e. in spring and autumn; as may be seen in nearly all public and private gardens, in France as well as in England—new patterns every autumn and every spring—no rest or peace anywhere. In the beautiful summer of 1893, the flower-beds in the public gardens of Paris were quite bare of all flowers in June, before. the | wretched winter-nursed flowers had been set out in their patterns. If such things must be ae ie ee Explanatory done in the name of flower-gardening, it were many times better to carry them out in a place apart, rather than expose the foreground of a beautiful house or landscape to such disfigurement. Spring flowers are easily grown in multitudes away from the house, and, therefore, for their sakes the system of digging up the flower-beds twice a year need not be carried out. Wild gardening should go hand in hand with the thorough cultivation of the essential beds of the flower-garden around the house, and to their being filled with plants quite different from those we entrust to the crowded chances of turf or hedgerow :—to rare or tender plants The MOUNTAIN CLEMATIS. or choice garden flowers like the Tea Rose and Carna- tion—plants which often depend for their beauty on their double states, and for which rich soil and care and often protection are essential. STAR OF BETHLEHEM in Grass. CHAPTER II. EXAMPLE FROM HARDY BULBS IN GRASS OF LAWNS OR MEADOWS. WE will now see what may be done with one type of vegetation—hardy bulbs like Daffodils and plants dying down after flowering early in the year, like the Winter Aconite and the Blood-root (Sanguinaria). How many of us enjoy the beauty which hardy Spring flowers of these orders might give us? How many get beyond the conventionalities of the flower- garden, with its patchings, and taking up, and drying, and playing with our beautiful Spring Bulbs? Garden adornment with early bulbs is merely in its infancy; at present we merely place a few of the showiest in geometrical lines. The little done leads to such poor results, that many people, alive to the charms of a garden too, scarcely notice Spring-flowering Bulbs Example from hardy bulbs in grass 13 at all, regarding them as things which require endless care, and as interfering with the ‘bedding-out.’ And this is likely to be the case so long as the most effective of all modes of arranging them is unused. Look, for instance, at the wide and bare belts of grass that wind in and around the shrubberies in nearly every country place; frequently, they never display a particle of plant-beauty, and are merely places to be roughly mown now and then. But if planted here and there with the Snowdrop, the blue Anemone, Crocus, Scilla, and Winter-Aeonite, they would in spring surpass in charms the gayest of ‘spring gardens.’ Cushioned among the grass, the flowers would unfold prettier than they can in the regulation sticky earth of a border; in the grass of spring, their natural bed, they would look far better than they ever do on the brown earth of a garden. Once carefully planted, they—while an annual source of the greatest interest—occasion no trouble whatever. Their leaves die down so early in spring that they would not interfere with the mowing of the grass, and we should not attempt to mow the grass in such places till the season of vernal flowers had passed. Surely it is enough to have a portion of lawn as smooth as a carpet at all times, without shaving off the ‘long and pleasant grass’ of the other parts of the grounds. It would indeed be worth while to leave many parts of the grass unmown for the sake of growing many beautiful plants in it. If in a spot 14 The Wild Garden where a wide carpet of grass spreads out in the sheltered bay of a plantation, there be dotted the blue Apennine Anemone, any Snowdrops, the Snow- flake, Crocuses in variety, Scillas, Grape Hyacinths, many Narcissi, the Wood Ane- mone, mat aay oer Soca : flowers liking the soil, we % should have a picture of vernal © beauty, the flowers relieved by .).; grass, and the whole devoid of i man’s weakness for tracing wall- | eS paper patterns where everything 2 should be varied and changeful. “ In such a garden it might be clear that the artist had caught the true meaning of Nature in her grouping, without sacrificing ps 7 anything of value in the garden. Mowing the grass once a fort. ™ ae 0 . — The BELL-FLOWERED SCILLA, night in pleasure grounds, as — xaturaized with our own WOOD HYACINTH. now practised, ts a costly mis- take. We want shaven carpets of grass here and there, but what nonsense it is to shave it as often as foolish men shave their faces! There are indeed places where they boast of mowing forty acres! Who would not rather see the waving grass with countless flowers than a close surface without a blossom? Think of the labour wasted in this ridicu- lous work of cutting the heads off flowers and grass. Example from hardy bulbs in grass 15 Let much of the grass grow till fit to cut for hay, and we may enjoy in it a world of lovely flowers that will blossom and perfect their growth before hay time; some who have carried out the ideas of this book have waving lawns of feathery grass where they used to shave the grass every ten days; a cloud of flowers where a daisy was not let peep. It is not only to places in which shrubberies, and plantations, and belts of grass in the rougher parts of the pleasure ground, and moss-bordered walks occur that these remarks apply. The suburban garden, with its single fringe of planting, may show like beauty, to some extent. It may have the Solomon’s Seal arching forth from a shady recess, behind tufts of many Daffodils, while in every case there may be fringes of strong and hardy flowers in the spring sun. The prettiest results are only attainable where the grass need not be mown till nearly the time the meadows are mown. Then we may have gardens of Narcissi, such as no one dreamt of years ago; such as no one ever thought possible in a garden. In grass not mown at all we may even enjoy many of the Lilies, and all the lovelier and more stately bulbous flowers of the meadows and mountain lawns of Europe, Asia, and America. On a stretch of good grass which need not be mown, and on fairly good soil in any part of our country, beauty may be enjoyed such as has hitherto 16 The Wild Garden only gladdened the heart of the rare wanderer on the high mountain lawns and copses, in May when the earth children laugh in multitudes on_ their mother’s breast. All planting in the grass should be in natural groups or prettily fringed colonies, growing to and fro as they like after planting. Lessons in this grouping are to be had in woods, copses, heaths, and meadows, by those who look about them as they go. At first many will find it difficult to get out of formal masses, but that may be got over by studying natural groupings of wild flowers. Once established, the plants soon begin to group them- selves in pretty ways. As further showing what may be done with the hardy bulbs, not only outside the flower-garden but even in what forms part of the farm, I print here a paper read by me before the Royal Horticultural Society in 1891. Earty FLowerinc Buiss in Meapow Grass. Having during the past five years planted several hundred thousand bulbs and roots in meadow grass, the results may, perhaps, be suggestive to others. An advantage of this method is the delightfully - artistic arrangements of which it permits. It is also a deliver- ance of flower-beds from the poor thing known as spring bedding. This system of ‘bedding,’ which began Example from hardy bulbs in grass 17 in France, and is there still seen in all its bareness, spread to many of our gardens; it consisted of putting out in formal masses a few biennial plants, such as the Wood Forget-me-not and Silene. This necessitated a complete change in the contents of the beds every year, or, rather, twice a year, and therefore prevented their being given to the nobler kinds of flower gardening. It is easy to have all the flower-beds proper devoted to precious and enduring plants, such as Tea Roses, Carnations, and the plants that require good and constant culture and time for development, by the aid of the wild garden. We begin with the blue Apennine Anemone: of this I planted several thou- sand roots in grass. Not having any beds or borders near the house where I wanted it, I put it in meadows around the house in light broken groups and masses. It flowers and increases every year without the slightest attention ; and, being early in growth as compared with grass, disappears before the meadow grass has to be cut in summer. This is an important point, and shows what may be done with many beautiful spring flowers. One has the pleasure of seeing them year by year flowering in their seasons, and giving delightful effects, as these Anemones did this year, both in groups in the open sunny fields, and also clustering thickly round the base of old Elm-trees on their margin. Among the blue Anemone, here and there, stood groups of Narcissus, and in cases where the Anemones and Daffodils flowered together the effect was often c 18 The Wild Garden beautiful. This Anemone is hardy, and always grows freely in grass, and never deteriorates. In Greece this year I saw on the mountains acres of the blue Greek Anemone, and think it is equally as hardy and as free as the Italian one, and quite as useful for naturalization in the grass. The simplicity of the culture of plants like this, which thrive in meadow grass, and the foliage of which withers before the grass need be mown for hay, makes them a most important group, as so much meadow grass comes near most country houses. A very great number of the spring flowers of the northern world may be treated in this manner, and give us beautiful spring gardens. The most important group of all these early flowers is the Narcissus. Five years ago I planted many thousands in the grass. I never doubted that I should succeed with them, but I did not know I should succeed nearly so well. They have thriven admirably, bloomed well and regularly, the flowers are large and handsome, and, to my surprise, have not diminished in size. In open, rich, heavy bottoms, along hedgerows, in quite open loamy fields, in every position I have tried them. They are delightful when seen near at hand, and also effective in the picture. The leaves ripen, disappear before mowing time comes, and do not in any way interfere with farming. The harrowing and rolling of the fields in the spring are a little against the foliage, and probably a better result could be obtained with the finer Narcissus by wood walks and open copses, which Example from hardy bulbs in grass 19 abound in so many English country places. With the great group of forms of the common English, Irish, and Scotch Daffodils I have had good results; they thrive better and the flowers are handsomer than in the wild plant—not uncommon in Sussex. The little Tenby Daffodil is very sturdy and pretty, and never fails us. The only one that has failed is the Bayonne Daffodil. A very delightful feature of the Narcissus meadow gardening is the way great groups follow each other in the fields. When the Star Narcissi begin to fade a little in their beauty the Poets follow, and as I write this paper we have the most beautiful picture I have ever seen in cultivation. Five years ago I cleared a little valley of various fences, and so opened a pretty view. Through the meadow runs a streamlet. We grouped the Poet’s Narcissus near it, and through a grove of Oaks on a rising side of the field. We have had some beauty every year since; but this year, the plants having become established, or very happy for some other reason, the whole thing was a picture such as one might see in an Alpine valley! The flowers were large and beautiful when seen near at hand, and the effect in the distance delightful. This may, perhaps, serve to show that this kind of work will bring gardening into a line with art, and that the artist need not be for ever divorced from the garden, by geometrical patterns which cannot possibly interest anybody accustomed to drawing beautiful forms and scenes. I need say no more to show the good qualities of this group of ce 20 The Wild Garden plants for wild gardening, many places having much greater advantages than mine for showing their beauty in the rich stretches of grass by pleasure-ground walks. Various kinds of places may be adorned by Narcissi in this way—meadows, woods, copses, wood walks, and drives through ornamental woodland and pleasure grounds, where the grass need not be mown until late in the summer. Dog’s-tooth Vziolet.—This beautiful and delicate- looking plant surprises me by the free way it grows in grass in several places where I have planted it, varying a good deal, according to the soil, in its size, but never failing to interest by its beautiful leaves and flowers. It withers rather early, and is a perfect plant for meadow culture. Last autumn I made a trial of the Grape Hyacinth (Muscari), and was delighted with the result this spring, with the pretty clouds of blue, quite distinct in the grass. Snowdrops in various forms are indispensable, and do fairly well, though they vary very much in the way they thrive on different soils. They look much better in the grass than in bare earth. Among the flowers in the meadow grass there is nothing more beautiful than the varieties of Snake’s-head (Fritillaria). It is the very type of plant for this work, and the white and pretty purple flowers are admired by all who see them in the early grass. The Crocus, from its early brilliancy, is indispensable, Example from hardy bulbs in grass 21 and the hardier forms are able to take care of them- selves. In all this kind of work, if we could get the wild types of plant it would be all the better, because such beauty as they possess is certainly never the result of cultivation. When we buy bulbs highly cul- tivated we may expect some reduction in the size of the flower when it assumes a semi-wild state; but nobody who cares for the form and beauty of the flowers will mind this reduction. Flowers from bulbs planted several years are somewhat smaller than the newly planted kinds, but certainly no less beautiful. While we have proof enough that Crocuses grow well in meadow grass on a large scale, they seem particularly suitable for growing under groves of trees, their growth coming before the trees spread forth their leaves. In many country places outside the garden proper there are many spaces under trees often possessed by Goutweed and other weeds which should be given to the Crocus and like early flowers. Tulips.—1 have tried only one wild Tulip, the Wood Tulip (T. sylvestris), sent me from Touraine to the extent of a thousand roots, and I do not think we have lost any ; they bloom gracefully every year. The shortness of bloom which Tulips show should lead one to try the wild kinds in grass. Their broad, fragile leaves are apt to be injured by the harrow. They are better tried in copses or drives through woods, where they are free from this injury. Stars of Bethlehem ( Ornithogalum).—The starry trusses ee 22 The Wild Garden of the common old border kind are quite different in effect from our other early flowers, and very pretty. In this genus there is much difference in habit, the greenish, drooping-flowered kinds, like nutans, giving quite a different effect from that of the common white border kind. There is no difficulty about growing these in grass. The Snowflakes (Leucojum) do admirably, the early one being a more precious flower than the Snowdrop, useful to gather, and brightly effective very early. The ‘later ones are also graceful things, free and handsome in rich grass. Living in a world of Wood Hyacinths, there was less need to try the Scillas than the non-British flowers, which give us new aspects of flower life ; but so far the results have been good with the Spanish Scilla and the new Scilla-like plants (Chionodoxa), which are early and disappear early. To this sort of flower-gardening, which extends so much the interest in flower life, the bulb merchants might do great good by offering such bulbs and roots as these at lowest possible rates by the thousand. It would pay cultivators to grow such roots in quantity for the public, as it now pays Lincolnshire farmers to grow the Snowdrop for the trade in that popular flower. The whole success of wild gardening depends on arranging bold, natural groups with a free hand. i ee eee rer a CHAPTER III. EXAMPLE FROM THE FORGET-ME-NOT FAMILY. I wILL now try to show ° what may be f& done with one type of |] CAUCASIAN COMFREY insbrbtey, NOrthern | plants—the Forget-me-nots, one not so rich as others in plants for the wild garden. Through considering it, however, we may be able to form some idea of what we may do by choosing from all the plants that grow in the meadows and mountain-woods of Europe, Asia, and America. The Forget-me-not family embraces a number of coarse weeds, but if it had only the common Forget- me-not, would have some claims on us; but what lovely exotic plants there are in this order that would afford delight if met with creeping’ about along our wood’ and shrubbery walks! Nature, say some, is sparing of her deep true blues; but there are obscure plants in this order that possess the deepest, and most delicate Example from the Forget-me-not family 25 of blues, and which will thrive in the wild garden. The creeping Omphalodes verna even surpasses the Forget-me-not in the depth and beauty of its blue, and runs about quite freely in any shrubbery or open wood, or even in turf in moist soil not very frequently mown. Besides, in the garden border, it would be a not very agreeable object when once the sweet spring bloom had passed; whereas, in lanes, woods, or copses, the low plants are not noticed when out of flower, but live modestly till returning spring jewels them with the charm of fine colour. Another plant of the order is so useful for this purpose, that if a root or two of it be planted in any shrubbery, it will soon run about, exterminate the weeds, and prove quite a lesson in wild gardening. I allude to the Caucasian Comfrey (Symphytum cauca- sicum), which grows about twenty inches high, and bears quantities of the loveliest blue pendulous flowers. It, like many others, does well in a grove, or shrubbery, filling in the naked spaces between the trees, and has a quick growth but never becomes weedy. As if to contrast with it, there is the deep crimson Bohemian Comfrey (S. bohemicum), which is sometimes ‘startling from the depth of its vivid colouring ; and the White Comfrey (S. orientale), quite a vigorous-growing kind, blooming in spring. These Comfreys, indeed, are admirable plants for rough places—the tall ones thriving in a ditch, and flowering better than they do in the garden in prim 26 The Wild Garden borders. There are about twenty species, mostly from Southern and Central Europe, Asia, and Siberia. I should perhaps omit the British Forget-me-nots, wishing now chiefly to show what we may do with exotics quite as hardy as our own wildlings, but where a British plant is not wild within the district in which we live, it may be brought into the wild garden with good effect. When I went to Gravetye Manor there was not a trace of the common water Forget-me-not there, in either of the two lakes or in the woodland streams that fed them. We had of course to get so good a plant for the garden to carpet moist beds; it grows very rapidly, and as when the plants were thick the boys took baskets of them and threw them into the streamlets and round the margin of the pone i a year ¥ we had del Rohit protips ‘as She ‘ponds and streams of the place flow into the Medway river, no doubt seeds and plants were carried far down its banks. Also, as there was none of our beautiful wood Forget-me-not in the place, I sowed some in freshly sown turf and had the pleasure of seeing it bloom for many years. Thus we may not only introduce hardy exotic plants, but some fair flowers of our own country. How many garden waters do not show some of our handsomest native water plants, as the flowering Rush, great Buttercup, and Bog-bean? We have another Forget-me-not, not British, which surpasses them all—the early Myosotis Example from the Forget-me-not family 27 dissitiflora. This is like a patch of the bluest sky, before our own Forget-me-not has opened, and is admirable for banks in a wood or for moist stony slopes. In carting away the soil to put in the foun- dations of an addition to Gravetye house, many loads of rubbish were thrown in a heap in Warrens wood, where a year afterwards I came upon some beautiful tufts of this which had planted themselves from bits thrown out with the rubbish. For rocky places and sandy banks we have the spreading Gromwell (Lithospermum prostratum) of a fine gentian-blue. Good plants are the Lungworts (Pulmonaria), and often destroyed through exposure on bare dug and often dry borders. The old Pulmonaria (Mertensia virginica) is one of the loveliest of spring flowers. It is rare in gardens; if placed in a moist place near a stream, or in a peat or free sandy bottom, it will live ; whereas it frequently dies in a garden. The newer and more easily grown Mertensia sibirica is a lovely plant, taller and loving a marshy place. These two plants alone would repay a trial in the wild garden and may show that for cultivation alone (apart from art, or arrange- ment) the wild-garden idea is sometimes worth carrying out. Among annual flowers we have Borage, a few seeds of which scattered over fresh ground soon germinate, and form pretty patches. The Cretan Borage is a curious old perennial, 28 The Wild Garden seldom seen in gardens; for its growth is robust and its habit coarse. It is, however, a good plant for a rough place where the ample room which it wants may be spared and where it may take care of itself, showing among the hardiest of the early spring flowers. THE CRETAN BORAGE (Sorago Cretica); example of perennial too vigorous for flower-beds. Thus, though I say little of the anet (Anchusa tribe, several of which could be found worth a place with our own British Evergreen Alkanet, it will be seen that a garden of beauty may be reaped from the Forget-me-not tribe alone. Any one could settle Example from the Forget-me-not family 29 the matter to his satisfaction in a couple of years with these plants alone, in a shrubbery, ditch, lane, or copse, always provided that he takes care to adapt each kind to the position and the soil. For instance, the Giant Comfrey will grow six feet high in rich or moist soil in a ditch, and therefore, once fairly started, might be trusted to take care of itself. The Caucasian Comfrey, on the other hand, grows from eighteen inches to two feet high, and is at home in the spaces in a copse or shrubbery. The creeping Forget-me-not (Omphalodes verna) is a little plant that creeps about in grass not over a span high, or forms a carpet of its own—these differences must be thought of, as without knowing something of the habits and stature of plants, mistakes will be made. These Borageworts, as rich in blue as the gentians, are often poor rusty things in exposed sunny borders, and much in the way when out of flower, whereas in shady lanes, copses, or shrubberies, in hedgerow-banks, or ditches, we only notice them in their beauty. GROUP OF GLOBE FLOWERS (Trollius) in moist place; type of nobler Northern flowers little cultivated in gardens. CHAPTER IV. EXAMPLE FROM THE GLOBE FLOWER ORDER. THE Buttercup order of plants embraces many widely diverse in aspect from the common kinds that burnish our meadows. In it, for the Wild Garden, is the sweet-scented Virgin’s Bower (Clematis flam- mula), a native of the south of Europe, but as hardy in all parts of Britain as our native Clematis. And as the Hawthorn sweetens the air of spring, so will this add fragrance to the autumnal months. It is never more beautiful than when crawling over some low tree or shrubs, and I have planted it in newly formed hedgerows. An open glade in a wood, or on shrubby banks near, would be charming for it, while in the pleasure ground it may be used as a creeper over old stumps or trees. The Hair Bell Virgin’s Bower (Clematis campaniflora), and the beautiful white Example from the Globe Flower Order 31 Indian Clematis montana grandiflora, a native of Nepaul, are as beautiful, and many others of the family are worthy of a place, rambling over old trees, bushes, hedgerows, or tangling over banks. These single wild species of Clematis are more graceful than the large hybrid kinds now common; they are very hardy and free. In genial sea-shore districts a beautiful pale kind, common in Algeria, and in the islands on, and the shores of, the Mediter- ranean (Clematis cirrhosa), will be found charming— nearly evergreen, and flowering very early in spring —even in winter in some places and in mild years. Next in this order we come to the _Windflowers, _or Anemones, and more beautiful flowers do not adorn this world of flowers. Have we a bit of rich grass ‘land not mown? If so, the beautiful Alpine Anemones (A. alpina and A. sulphurea) may be grown there, though they are rare and ‘slow’ to establish. Any sunny bushy bank or slope t to adorn with charming early flowers? For this we have Anemone blanda, a lovely Greek kind; place it in open bare spots, as it is dwarf, and it will perhaps at Christmas, and onward through the spring, open its large blue starry flowers. The common Poppy _ Anemone (A. _coronaria) will be happiest in open, bare, sandy or rocky places in loam; and the showy scarlet Anemone will do best in rich but not heavy soil. Of other Anemones, hardy, free, and beautiful to run free in our shrubberies and pleasure grounds, a2 The Wild Garden the Japan Anemone, its white varieties, and the Snowdrop Windflower (A. sylvestris), are among the best of the exotic species. The Japan Anemones grow so strongly that they will thrive even among stiff brushwood, brambles, &c.; and scattered along the low, tangled margins of shrubberies. The WHITE JAPAN ANEMONE in the Wild Garden. Few plants are more lovely in the wild garden than the White Japan Anemone and the various other tall Anemones of the same country. The wild garden is a home for numerous plants, to which people often begrudge room in their borders, such as the Golden Rods, Michaelmas Daisies, Compass plants, and a host of others, which are beautiful for a season only, or Example from the Globe Flower Order 33 perhaps too rampant for what are called choice bor- ders and beds. This Anemone is one of the most beautiful of garden flowers, and one which is as well suited for the wild garden as the coarsest. Partial shade seems to suit it; and in any case the effect of the large white flowers is, if anything, more beautiful in. halfshady places. The flowers, too, are more lasting here than where they are fully exposed. As for the Apennine Anemone (the white as well as the blue forms), it is is one of the prettiest flowers of any clime, and should be in every garden, in the borders, and scattered in woods and_ shrubberies. I have planted many thousands of it in various soils, and it never fails, though it shows a great difference in growth and freedom of bloom, according to the soil, being much larger for example on warm free Irish limestone soils than on cool soils in Sussex. But it is so well worth growing everywhere that for it alone it would be worth while to form a wild garden! Near to it is the also beautiful blue Windflower of the Greek hills, in effect like the blue Apennine Wind- flower, but more varied in size and colour to the south, and in some of its forms earlier in bloom in spring. This might perhaps not have the same love for the grass as the Italian blue Anemone, but if not it would be easy to naturalize in bare or stony places. The yellow A. A. ranunculoides, a doubtful native, found in oné or two Ria spots, but not ‘really British, is strange and charming but flowers well only on chalk. ee Se ee 34 The Wild Garden The large Hungarian Hepatica (angulosa) grows freely among low shrubs and in half-shady spots, and we all know how readily the old Hepatica grows on garden soils of fair quality. There are many forms of the common Hepatica (Anemone Hepatica) grown in gardens, and all the colours of the species should be represented in every collection of spring flowers, where the soil is favourable to these plants, but Hepaticas are often evergreen plants, and being very dwarf ask for more care in naturalizing them than is needed for vigorous plants of the same order, some of which will hold their own among the coarsest weeds. There are many of the Ranunculi, not natives of Britain, that would grow as freely as our native kinds. Many may remember the pretty button-like white flowers of the Fair Maids of France (Ranunculus _aconitifolius fl. pl.), in the old mixed border. This, and the wild form from which it comes—a frequent plant in alpine meadows—may also be enjoyed in our wild garden. Quite distinct from all these, and of charming beauty, is R amplexicaulis, with flowers of pure white, and simple 1 leaves of a glaucous green and graceful form; a hardy and pretty plant on almost any soil. This is one of the elegant exotic forms of a family well represented in the golden type in our meadows, and therefore valuable as giving us a distinct form. Of the Globe Flowers (Trollius), there are various kinds apart from the native one, all rich in colour and good inform. These are among the noblest wild-garden ANEMONES in the Riviera. Example from the Globe Flower Order 37 plants—quite hardy, free of growth in the heaviest of soil and wettest of climates, a a “lovely ‘type “of e early in our fields or gardens; for these handsome Globe Flowers are among the many flowers that for years have found no place in the garden proper. They are lovely in groups or colonies, in cool grassy places, where many other plants would perish, but where they will get on well, even among docks or the coarsest native plants. I put them in wet hollows at Gravetye that no man could clear of weeds and had the pleasure of seeing their handsome flowers come instead. The Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) should be naturalized quite under the branches of deciduous trees, will come up and flower when the trees are naked, will have its foliage developed before the leaves come on the trees, and be afterwards hidden from sight. Thus masses of this earliest flower may be grown without sacrifice of space, and will be noticed only when bearing a bloom on every little stem. On heavy soils it is not so free or bright as on free and limestone ones. That fine old plant, the Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger), likes partial _ shade_ better than full exposure, and should be used abundantly, given rather snug and warm positions, so that its flowers may be encouraged to open well and fully. Any other kinds may also be used. Recently many kinds of Helleborus have been added to our gardens ; and all of them are not so conspicuous at first sight 38 The Wild Garden as the Christmas Rose, yet they are of remarkable beauty of foliage and habit as well as of blossom, and they flower in the spring. These, too, show the advantage of the wild garden as regards cultivation. They will do better in any bushy places, or copses, or in mutually sheltering groups on warm banks *- and slopes, even in hedge banks, old quarries, or rough mounds, than in the or- dinary garden border. Of the difference in the effect in the two cases it is need- less to speak. Some of the = eS Monkshoods are THE GREEN HELLEBORB in the Wild Garden, handsome, but they are virulent_poisons .; and, bearing in mind what fatal accidents have arisen from their use, they are better not used at all in the garden proper. Amongst tall and vigorous herbaceous plants few are more suitable for rough places. They are robust enough to grow any- where in shady or half-shady spots; and their tall spikes of blue flowers are very beautiful. An illustration in the chapter on the plants suited for the wild garden shows the common Aconite in a Somersetshire valley in Example from the Globe Flower Order 39 company with the Butterbur and the Hemlock. The larger rich blue kinds, and the blue and white one, are showy grown in deep soils, in which they attain a great height. When out of flower, like many other stately perennials, they were often stiff and ugly in the old borders and beds; in the wild garden their stately forms when flower-time is gone, no longer tied into bundles or cut in by the knife, will group finely with other vigorous herbaceous vegetation. The Delphiniums, or tall Pe- ~~ rennial Larkspurs, are amongst the most beautiful of all flowers. They embrace almost every shade of blue, and, being usually of a tall and strong type, will make way among vigorous Severe EIA e ese rietls weeds, pruee many things for which we have to recommend an open space, or a wood with nothing but a carpet of moss under the trees. One of the prettiest effects which I have seen was a colony of tall Larkspurs. Portions of old roots had been chopped off by the men when a bed of these 40 The Wild Garden plants was dug in the autumn, and the refuse thrown into a near plantation, far in among the shrubs and trees. Here they grew in half-open spaces, so far removed from the margin that they were not dug and were not seen. When I saw the Larkspurs in flower they were more beautiful than they are in borders or beds, not growing in such close stiff tufts, but mingling with and relieved by the trees above and the shrubs around. This case points out that one might make wild gardens from the mere parings and thinnings of the beds and borders in autumn in any place where there is a collection of good hardy plants. The engraving on the next page represents one of the most beautiful effects obtained in his wild garden by an acquaintance of mine who began when he knew very little of plants and their favoured haunts, and succeeded well in a not very favourable site. Herbaceous Pzonies were amongst those that succeeded best. The effect - was very beautiful, either close at hand or seen at a considerable distance off. Herbaceous Pzeonies are amongst the most free, vigorous, and hardy of perennial plants, and in free good soil with them alone most novel and beautiful effects may be carried out in most places where there is room. Even in small gardens, a group or two outside the margin of a shrubbery would be good. The effect of the blooms amongst the lo Fass is nn ee nereer ee ay enrereneernat finer than any they present in borders, and when out of flower they are not in the way. It is almost needless Example from the Globe Flower Order 41 to speak here of the great variety of forms now obtain- able amongst these Herbaceous Pzonies, the fine double forms of which deserve the best cultivation in beds and borders—the hardy free-growing wild kinds will often come in for the wild garden. My friend’s Peeonies formed a group that could be seen from a distance; when I saw them they were surrounded DOUBLE CRIMSON PONIES in grass at Crowsley Park. by long and waving grass. I cannot give any idea of the fine effect. The blue alpine Clematis-like Atragene alpina is one of my favourite flowers—seldom seen out of a botanical garden. It likes to trail over old stumps or through bushes, or over rocky banks. Speaking of such plants as this, one would like to draw a sharp distinction between them and the various weedy and indistinct 42 The Wild Garden subjects that are now creeping into cultivation owing to the revival of interest in hardy plants. Many of these have some botanical interest, but they can be only useless in the garden. Our chief danger now is getting into cultivation plants that are neither very distinct nor very beautiful, while perhaps we neglect many of the really fine kinds. This Atragene is a precious plant for low bush and bank wild gardening. Among plants which one rarely sees in a flower- garden are the Meadow Rues; yet there is a quiet beauty about them. As some will grow often in a hedgerow or lane or byway, or in a copse, or under the shrubs, in places usually abandoned to common weeds, there is no reason why they should not be rescued from the oblivion of the botanic garden. CHAPTER V. PLANTS CHIEFLY FITTED FOR THE WILD GARDEN. Type of erect COMPOSIT& for the Wild Garden. A Goop reason for one form of the Wild Garden is that it offers us a way of growing a number of exotic plants not suited for garden culture in the old sense. Many of these plants have much beauty when in flower, and at other seasons, but they are so vigorous in growth that they overrun all their more delicate neighbours. Many, too, are so coarse that they are unfit for choice borders, and after flowering they leave a blank or a mass of un- sightly stems. These plants are not pretty in gardens, and are a main cause of the neglect of hardy flowers ; yet beautiful at certain stages. A tall Harebell, stiffly tied up in a garden border, is at best of times an unsightly object ; but the same plant growing amongst the long 44 The Wild Garden grass in a thin wood is lovely. The Golden Rods and Michael- mas Daisies used to overrun the old mixed border, and were with it abolished. But these seen together in a New England wood in autumn are a picture. So also there are numerous exotic plants of which the in- dividual flowers may not be so striking, but which, grown in colonies, afford beautiful aspects of vegetation. When I first wrote this book, not one of these plants was in cultivation outside botanic gardens. It was even considered by the best friends of hardy flowers a mistake to recommend them, for they knew that it was the mastery of these weedy vigorous plants that made people give up hardy flowers for the glare of bedding plants. The ‘ wild garden’ then, in the case of these particular plants, opens up to us a new world of infinite beauty. In it every plant vigorous enough not to require the care of the cultivator or THE GIANT SCABIOUS (8 feet high). (Cephalaria procera.) Tail herba- ceous plant, best fitted for the Wild Garden. GIANT COW PARSNIP. Type of Great Siberian herbaceous vegetation. For rough places only. Plants chiefly fitted for the Wild Garden 47 a choice place in the mixed border will find a home. Of such plants there are numbers in every northern country. The taller Yarrows, the stately Aconites, the vigorous, and at certain seasons handsome, " Althzeas, Angelica with its fine foliage, the herbaceous kinds of Aralia with fine foliage from the American woods, also the Wormwood family (Artemisia), the stronger kinds of American Cotton-weed (Asclepias), certain vigorous Asparagus, Starworts in great variety, Betonica, pretty, and with delicate flowers, but hardly fit for the mixed border, various vigorous Grasses, showy Buphthalmums, handsome Bindweeds, too free ina garden, the stout Campanulas, exotic Thistles, numerous Centaurea, somewhat too coarse for the garden ; and among other hardy plants, the following are chiefly suitable for the wild garden : Crambe. Helenium. Rhaponticum. Digitalis. Helianthus. Rheum. Dipsacus. Heracleum. Rudbeckia. Doronicum. Inula. Scolymus. Echinops. Lavatera. Silphium. Elymus. Ligularia. Solidago. Epilobium. Mulgedium. Symphytum. Eupatorium. Onopordon. Veratrum. Ferula. Phytolacca. Verbascum. Funkia. Polygonum. Vernonia. Galega. CHAPTER VI. DITCHES, SHADY LANES, COPSES, AND HEDGEROWS. Foliage of TEAZLE, on hedge-bank in spring. Men seek sunny spots for their gardens, so that they would scarcely per- haps care for these for a garden! Yet there are ditches, and shady nooks in every dis- trict, that may be made more beautiful than many a ‘flower-gar- den.’ But what would grow in them? Many of the beautiful wood plants of the north— things that do not care for sunny hillsides or meadows, but take shelter in woods, or are happy deep between rocks, or in caves beneath the great boulders on many a mountain gorge, and garland the flanks of rock that guard the rivers on their way through the hills. And as these dark walls, ruined Ditches, Lanes, Copses, and Hedgerows 49 by ceaseless flow of the torrent, are often beautiful, so may we adorn the shady dykes and lanes. For while the nymph-gardener of the ravine may depend on the stray grains of seeds brought in the moss by the robin when building her nest, or on the mercy of the hurrying wave, we may place side by side the snowy white wood Lily (Trillium grandiflorum), whose home is in the > shady American woods, the twin flower of Northern Europe, and find both thrive on the same spot. In North America in the woods and near them I often saw the wet ditches filled with noble ferns. And not only may we be assured that numbers of the most beautiful plants of other countries will thrive in deep ditches and in like positions, but also that not a few of them, such as the white wood Lily, will thrive much better in them than in the open garden, the results widely differing according to the nature of the soil and many other things—not always easy to understand the action of. The Trillium has a flower as fair as any white lily, but, in consequence of being a shade-loving plant, it often perishes in a dry garden border, while in a shady moist dyke it will thrive as in its native woods; and, if in moist, free soil, prove as fair as anything seen in our stoves. Our wild flowers take possession of the hedges that seam the land, often draping them with such inimitable grace that half the conservatories in the country, with their small red pots, are poor compared with a few yards’ length of the blossomy hedgerow E 50 The Wild Garden verdure. Wild Roses, Purple Vetch, Honeysuckle, and Virgin’s Bower, clamber above smaller, but not less pretty, wildlings, and, throwing veils of graceful life over the » hedgerow, remind us of the plantlife = in the thick- a” Ses OF ei NEN 4 ets of low aN shrubs onthe Alpine mea- dows. Next to the most . beautiful as- he pects of Al- pine flowers, there are few things in plant-life more lovely than the delicate tracery of low-climbing things wedded to the shrubs in all northern and temperate regions. Often perishing like grass, they are safe in the earth’s bosom in winter; in spring, finding the bushes once “YBED. Type of note climbing plants, with annual ‘stems. For hedgerows and more enjoyable, they rush over them ‘Skrurbecics, as children from school over a meadow of cowslips. Over bush, over brake, on mountain or lowland -copse, holding on with delicate grasp, they engrave them- fo 5 / 2 Ditches, Lanes, Copses, and Hedgerows 51 selves on the mind as the type of graceful plant-life. Besides climbing Pea-flowers and Convolvuli, of which the stems perish in winter, we have the great tribes of wild vines, noble in foliage, the many _Honeysuckles, from coral red to pale yellow, all beautiful; and the Clematidze, varied, and lovely, some with small flowers borne in showers like drops from a fountain jet, and often sweet as Hawthorn blossoms. This climbing vegetation may be trained and tor- tured into forms in gardens, but never will its beauty be seen until we entrust to it the garlanding of shrub, and copse, or hedgerow, fringes of plantation, or groups of shrubs and trees. All that need be done is to put in a few tufts of a kind, and leave them alone, adapting the plant to the spot and soil. The large Hungarian._Bindweed would be best in rough places, out of the pale of the garden, so that its roots might spread where they could do no harm, while a fragile Clematis might grow over a tree and star its green with fair flowers. In a wood we see a Honey- suckle clambering up through an old Hawthorn tree, and then struggling with it as to which should give most bloom—but in gardens not yet. Some may say that this cannot be done in the garden, but it can be; because, for gardens we can select plants from so many countries, and adapt them to our particular wants and soils. We can effect contrasts, in which nature is often poor in one place, owing to the few plants that naturally inhabit one spot of ground. Foolish old ‘laws’ laid E2 52 The Wild Garden down by landscape-gardeners—perpetuate the notion that a.garden is a ‘work of art, and therefore we must not attempt in it to imitate nature!’ the true. “garden differing from all other arts in this that it gives us the living things themselves, and not merely representations of them in paint or stone or wood. Where there are bare slopes, an excellent effect may be ob- tained by planting the stouter climbers, such as the Vines, * Mountain Clematis, and Honey- * suckles, in groups on the grass, f away from shrubs or low trees; while, when the banks are * precipitous or the rocks crop forth, we may allow a curtain of climbers to fall over them. fee SOO See ae Endless charming combina- saamnevey. tions may be made in. this way in many spots near country houses. The following are among the climbing and clinging hardy plants most suitable for garlanding copses, hedges, and thickets :—Everlasting Peas (many kinds), the Honeysuckles, Clematis (wild species mainly), the common Jasmine, Brambles, Vines (American and the common varieties), single Roses, Virginian creepers (Ampelopsis), the large Bindweed (Calystegia dahurica), Aristolochia Sipho, and A. tomentosa, and several of the Ditches, Lanes, Copses, and Hedgerows 53 perennial Tropeeolums (T. pentaphyllum, speciosum, and tuberosum). The hardy Smilax and the Canadian Moonseed, too, are very handsome, and suitable for this kind of gardening. Among the plants that are suitable for hedgerows and lanes, &c. are—Acanthus, Viola, both the sweet varieties and some of the large scentless kinds, Periwinkles, Speedwells,; Globe Flowers, Trilliums, Plume Ferns (Struthiopteris), and many other kinds, the Lily of the Valley and its many varieties and allies, the Canadian Blood-root, Winter Greens (Pyrola), Sines Seal, and ie species, May -Apple, Orobus in variety, many Narcissi, the Common Myrrh, the perennial Lupin, hardy common Lilies, Snowflakes, Everlasting Peas and allied plants, admirable for scrambling through low hedges and over bushes, Windflowers, the taller and stronger kinds in lanes and hedgerows, the various Christmas Roses that will repay for shelter, the European and hardier kinds of Gladiolus, such as segetum and Colvillei, the taller and more vigorous Crane’s-bills (Geranium), the Snake’s-head (Fritillaria) in variety, wild Strawberries of any \ variety < or species, Giant Fennels, Dog’s-tooth Violets in spots bare in spring, the Winter Aconite, the May Flower, for sandy poor soil under trees, Toothworts (Dentaria), the ‘coloured’ forms of Primroses, ‘ Bunch’ Primroses, Ox-lips, Polyanthus, the hardy European Cyclamens, Crocuses in places under trees not bearing leaves in spring, the yellow and pink Coronilla (C. 54 The Wild Garden montana and C. varia), many of the taller Harebells, Starworts (Aster), the Monkshoods which people fear in gardens; the different species of Allium often not welcome in gardens, some of which are beautiful, as, the White Provence kind and the old yellow garden Allium (Moly). With the above almost exclusively exotic things and our own wild flowers and ferns, beautiful colonies may be made. When I first wrote the Wild Garden, it was to THE YELLOW ALLIUM (A. Moly) naturalized. encourage the gardener to put some beautiful life in his garden grass, shrubberies, and half waste places —if ashamed of that beautiful life among his Perilla and dark Beet and Alternanthera. But now I want the fields to be gardens too, since at Gravetye I found I could do so much in the meadows mown for hay. The Wild Garden I see now need not stop at the pleasure-ground fence. Among the ways one may enjoy it most is in the making of living fences. In Ditches, Lanes, Copses, and Hedgerows 55 our country the system of keeping stock in the open air, instead of in sheds, makes a fence a necessity as all know to their cost, who have to look after a country place or farm of any size. But we live in mechanical days, when many think that among the blessings and fine discoveries of the age is that of making a gridiron fence! and so we see some of the fairest landscapes disfigured by a network of iron fencing. “And when a man throws away beautiful living fences and gives us miles of ugly iron in the foreground of a fair landscape, I think of the Devil setting up as an economist. Artistic, too, no doubt some of these “improvers think themselves! Iron Fences and our Landscapes. The iron fence bids fair to ruin the beauty of the English landscape, unless men see its ugliness and its drawbacks as a fence, its great cost, and the further cost of tinkering and daubing it with tar or paint. With bullocks on one or both sides of an iron fence, its fragility as a fence is soon seen. It is no use as a shelter, nor as a protection, as it only forms a ladder for all who want to get over with ease. As a boundary fence it means the loss of all privacy. Estates of much natural beauty have their charms stolen away by iron fences. Used to fence the pleasure ground or by drives, the effect is bad to any one who knows how much more beautiful live fences are. There is nothing an iron fence does that an ‘old-fashioned’ one will not 56 The Wild Garden do better, while it always looks well with its Ivy, Ferns, Primroses, and varied life. The bad opinion of the old-fashioned fence arose from its being so often neglected, and injured by trees until no longer effective. It is not only the tradesman emerging from the city who fancies there is no fence so perfect as an iron one. Such an idea would be excusable in mechanics, and many others who have not studied the question of fences from the point of safety, en- durance, and beauty, and who fear the expense and trouble of forming a living fence. But I regret to see the plague of iron fencing in some of the finest country places and marring the foreground of good views. No Fence so good as a live one on a bank. One objection to the live fence is its weakness at first, and the need of protecting it when small, but these difficulties are not insurmountable. It is usual to plant Quick small, and then protect it with elaborate fencing on either side—wearisome work, for which there is no need if people would take the trouble to get plants strong enough to form a good fence to begin with. With stout Quick, and a mixture of Holly, or other strong bushes, a good fence can be made at once without protection being needed. In every country place it would be easy to have a few lines of young and vigorous Quick put out in fields in lines a yard or so apart, where they might get Ditches, Lanes, Copses, and Hedgerows 57 stout, and be ready for fencing at any time. Where there are underwoods with Quick growing in them, it is often easy to grub up bushes of it, cut them down half way, and plant them in a fence, always on a bank. I have done this with success and without losing a bush, but should prefer to have a few lines of stout grown Quick ready to take up at any time. Most fences should be on banks with ‘dicks’ where the ground requires them, because the bank itself forms a fence against lambs and small animals, and the added soil that goes to make the bank gives much better growth. Three years ago I formed a fence of this sort, every bush of which was gathered in the underwood near ; the line of Quick was so strong that there was no need to fence them. To prevent, however, any chance of cattle rushing through, a thin Larch pole was run through along and just below the top of the fence, supported by the bushes, and no animal has since passed the fence or injured it. The waste slender tops of Larch lying in a wood near were used. This fence will be good for as many years as it is wanted, will form a shelter as well as a fence, and will not want any attention for many years to come. It should be clearly understood that in the formation of this fence we had not even the cost of the ordinary ‘stake and heather’ protection commonly ' used in re-making rough fences. The tough bushes did it all themselves, the sod bank helping them in all ways. Consider this as compared with the costly 58 The Wild Garden galvanized or iron fence, with its dangers, ugliness, and coldness! By far the best fence for farm and general work is the living fence—the most satisfactory and least expensive in the long run, and the most beautiful in its effect upon the landscape and for its varied life. I mean the living fence that is not too trim, and annual trimming is not necessary. Small, ‘skinny’ Quick fences are not so handsome as rough ones. The con- stant clipping of fences is needless in many grazing and woody districts. In good arable farms it may be desirable, but in most districts where fields are large the fence should also be a shelter—a_ bold, free-growing screen, with Bramble, wild Rose, Ferns, Ivy, and other scrambling things that like to live in it. I have many such fences that do not want attention for years at a time—on banks, as they always should be. They are better furnished at the bottom than some of the constantly clipped hedges. To plant on a bank may in some very dry soils, and where there is a low rainfall, be a mistake, but the bank itself doubles at least the depth of the soil, and the pro- tection of the bank and its little dick is a great gain to fencing, by allowing Briers and wild Roses to fill in the bottom of the hedge, and preventing small animals from making tracks through. My fences round woods are only re-made when the underwood is cut, say every ten years, and that is sufficient. The mass of wood. behind and the strong growth in the Ditches, Lanes, Copses, and Hedgerows 59 fence itself are such that no animal makes an attempt on them. The only source of weakness in such places is hedge trees, and they should be removed. A hedge can be kept in good order for generations by cutting and laying it every ten or dozen years, and the owner of such a fence deserves to suffer if he does not take care that this is done when the time comes round. The labour for it is enormously less than the cost of forming and tarring the iron fence and keeping it in repair. Bushes to use and avoid in Fences. To use bad fencing plants is folly, the money is thrown away, and the work never done. I have planted some thousands of Quick this season, in lines 3 feet apart, for the sake of getting strong bushes to make fences, and some Cockspur Thorn, of which I saw an excellent fence in France in 1892. I am not so sure about the Cherry Plum, which grows well in some places, but is not so tough as a Thorn, and in some cold soils, where the Quick is all we want, the Cherry Plum will not thrive. A few Sloe bushes may be used, but they are not so tough as Quick. A few seedling common Hollies not over 3 feet high are good, and, where there are not many rabbits to bark it, nothing is more successful than Holly. Hollies grow under trees better than any other fence plant. From the protection they give to stock, it is surprising that they are not more largely grown for shelter in 60 The Wild Garden _ stock-raising districts, and not clipped but grown naturally. One very often sees beautiful, almost natural fences of Holly and Quick in the forest districts of the south of England, and among Holly hedges well formed in better land, those at Woolver- stone, in Suffolk, are excellent. Except, however, in open woodless districts where rabbits are few, Hollies are sure to be barked when rabbit food is scarce. I have planted several thousands within a few years, and none are intact that are not protected by wiring. Sweet Brier, Dog Rose, and cut-leaved Bramble are very good to mix, and beautiful too in a rough, wild-looking hedge. It is as necessary to avoid bad fencing plants as to select and grow good ones. The worst is the common Privet, the ghost of what a fence plant should be. Its rapid growth deceives, and it is often used with a dangerous sharp-pointed iron fence outside as a guard, and perhaps, at the same time, to be the death of some animal. Privet is a rapid grower, or seems so at first ; it is never so strong a grower in the end as Quick, Holly, or wild Rose. The quicker the Privet grows the worse it is, and the plant should never be seen in a fence. Laurel is a soft useless fence plant, apt to be killed in cold districts and in valleys. Spruce is sometimes used in hedgerows, and is most unfitted for them for many reasons. The common Elder is always a source of weakness in a fence, and should never be planted or allowed to live in a fence. Ditches, Lanes, Copses, and Hedgerows 61 Oak and other not ugly Fencing. Where there are beautiful views, people who enjoy the landscape will do well mot to mar them with iron fencing. In some cases good views are kept by a sunk fence, and to prevent this from looking hard or deceptive in any way I throw a garland of wild Roses along the top of the wall, which marks the position of the fence, and always looks well. The groups of wild Roses I set out in a colony along the sunk fence made at Grave- tye are charming at all seasons. In many other cases, along important drives perhaps commanding interest- ing views, a finer thing by far than any iron fencing is the strong split Oak post-and-rail fence. There are many estates where Oak is abundant, and where the men split it up into stout heartwood posts and rails. This is not necessarily a dear fence, and it is a very beautiful and efficient one if well done. In colour it is perfect, improving as it gets older. Such a visible tangible fence will last for many years, and might come in the foreground of a picture by Corot or Turner. A few Sweet Briers or wild Roses stuck in the post-holes often turn out very pretty. For dividing lines in stockyards, too, nothing is so good and safe as a split Oak fence. Where good effects are thought of, nothing is more important than good post- and-rail fences in certain places on the farm, where we want to keep animals back without hiding the view, and where shelter is not required. Oak park 62 The Wild Garden fencing is pretty, and in many cases efficient, but too expensive to be done on a large scale for field work. Nor should I rank it as high as a good live fence, because of its cost, repairs, and the quickness with which it is often destroyed when old. The Fence as a Shelter. Apart from the ugliness of the iron fencing, its giving no shelter whatever is one of its worst points, as a good live fence gives excellent shelter for sheep and other animals. The prim, neat little hedge is not so good as a shelter, but better than an iron fence. A well-grown fence, cut down and re-made after a lapse of say ten years, gives good shelter. There are many such shelter fences, with Holly and Thorn allowed to grow at will, with an interlacing of Ivy, all seated on a good bank. Such lines as these in the direction of the prevailing winds could not fail to be helpful for stock in exposed fields. We have plenty of materials to form such fences as hardy and enduring as the bank itself. We might even have them evergreen if we used the Holly largely. The shelter of a good line of naturally-grown Holly on the north side of a high field in an exposed district would be equal to that of a shed. There would be no great difficulty in establishing such Holly fences in open farming districts where rabbits do not abound, but it is not so easy in wooded districts. Seedling plants, not large—i.e. 1 foot to 3 feet high— Ditches, Lanes, Copses, and Hedgerows 63 are the best to use. It is a good plan to buy some very small seedling Hollies, and let them get strong in a nursery, so as to be able to get a few when mending or making fences. The more ordinary materials, too, with an occasional Holly intermixed, give very efficient shelter indeed. The Ivy runs through such fences and makes them very pretty, tying them together with its graceful lace work, and its growth seldom chokes the Quick or other plants. The Fence Beautiful. So far this about the true British fence is to lead to what I want to emphasise—that the best and safest live fence may be beautiful as well as enduring and effective. If my reader will go so far as to form the right fence, then he has it in his power to make a very beautiful one, and to prove that use and beauty are one even in a fence. Wild rough fences in many countries are often pretty with Ivy, Clematis, Thorn, Fern, wild Rose, Honeysuckle, Brier and Sloe, but the trim clipped fence made of one sort of bush or tree only is stupidly ugly. We may make fences for miles, for ever beautiful yet always varied as one goes along. But to do this one must never deviate from the best fencing plants as a centre to the fence—Quick, Holly, and Cockspur Thorn, and while keeping to this central idea of the resisting and enduring bushes, add what beauty we can, and that is much! And as this is the Wild Garden its main 64 The Wild Garden idea may well be kept in view; for though we may make a fence of beautiful native plants, fences in pretty positions near the house may be made more beautiful and interesting by adding perfectly hardy plants of other countries. It gives us a means of varying fences which is often surprising, and we may tie them together with graceful climbers which are not of our own country, though none surpass our Honeysuckle wreathed over a fence. I use Sweet Brier largely, and have for several years planted thou- sands in fence making. As this plant is not native in all parts of our country, it may be considered as worth introducing as any exotic! The odour from the early days of spring fills the field, and then there are the summer flowers, and the bright Hips for autumn and winter days. Its advantages are that cattle do not eat it, and that the flower or fruit-laden branches swing careless into the field, when Hazel and other things would be eaten back to the stump. The shoots are so fiercely armed with spines that cattle respect it, and it is a fine aid in live fence making. In building our fence some young Sweet Briers should be put alongside the bank, while Quick and the essential fencing plants that we may prefer for the spot go on the top. The same thing applies to the wild Roses, the common Dog Rose of England being excellent. Other Roses will be found useful, such as the Japanese and the Needle Rose (R. acicularis). Different kinds of Bramble too are excellent, and often beautiful in Ditches, Lanes, Copses, and Hedgerows 65 flower, fruit and leaf. There is great variety among our Brambles, and not a few foreign ones are worth introducing, if we can get them. Anyone who notices English landscape beauty in spring will know how much we gain from Crab and Sloe, and May Blossoms in the fence. More beautiful things we cannot have, but it is wise to add to them as we can in various ways. Various bushes often abundant in gardens may be introduced here and there. I have used some of the dwarf Japan Crabs and Apples, the common Medlar, the Quince, the Japan Pear, which in some places comes so easily from seed, sowing the seeds on banks as well as planting. The beautiful ‘ Pyracantha’ is a dwarf evergreen shrub, which I look forward to as an excellent evergreen fence plant. It is not only this kind of shrub we may use, for beautiful climbers, such as the wild species of Clematis, which are often easily raised from seed; or small plants may be got for a few pence from English or continental nurseries. I speak of such kinds as the Virgin’s Bower (C. Viticella), C. Flammula, C. mon- tana, C. graveolens, C. campanulata and other wild kinds, many of them yet to be introduced. The gardeners are not always alive to their charms, and if we get them at all, we may sometimes have to put them in newly-made fences, in which they do and look well. The large Bindweed and other climbers may also be used in these free fences. Our common Ivy is a delightful plant in fences, and some of the F 66 The Wild Garden less common and more graceful kinds (when plentiful in gardens) may be used. The same is true of many hardy climbers. It is not only shrubs and climbers we may add to our fences, but hardy flowers of the more vigorous kinds, which indeed often thrive well in hedge banks. I have planted in them bulbs of Narcissus, Tulip, Violets, Wild Strawberries, Star- worts, Moon Daisies, and various vigorous plants which grow perhaps too well in the garden. They do not add to the strength of the fence, but when large rough fences are made they often adorn it, whereas the shrubs above mentioned, Wild Roses and Briers, tie the fence together, and add security as well to its beauty. In certain parts of Kent, on the. hills, we see a very picturesque fence, of unclipped Yew, creeping in dark single files across the hills, here and there bearing garlands of wild Clematis. A fence suggested by this may often be useful in gardens, and be improved upon. I mean an unclipped fence of native Evergreens, not planted close, and among them, at intervals, flowering shrubs. Where Yew is used for this, such a fence should not be put in open fields, but in country places there is often occasion for such a free dividing line, to separate orchards and other enclosures from roads or woods. Such a fence I made to protect the west side of the new orchard at Gravetye, running from the moat up the hill, using Yew in this case, as there was no grazing on either side; between the Yews were Ditches, Lanes, Copses, and Hedgerows 67 planted Medlar, Sloe, Quince, Wild Rose, Sweet Brier, Wild Raspberry, and, here and there, Virgin’s Bower and other Clematises, and the large Bindweed, which could do no harm there. This fence is meant to be a good shelter as well as a division, and such fences should not be clipped if their shelter is to be thought of. They are also much more beautiful unclipped, and where planted on the cold sides of orchards or fields are valuable for the warmth and shelter they give. The Holly in such positions, carrying garlands of Wild Rose, is very beautiful. CHAPTER VII. CLIMBERS FOR TREES AND BUSHES. Tue numerous hardy climbers are rarely seen to advantage, owing to their being stiffly trained against walls, and many of them have gone out of cultivation for this reason. One of the happiest ways of enjoying them is that of training them in free ways over trees; in this way many beautiful effects may be secured. In some low trees a grace- ful creeper may garland their heads; , in tall ones the stem only. Some vigo- rous climbers in time ascend tall trees, and there are few more beautiful than a veil of Clematis montana over a tall tree. Many lovely kinds may be grown, apart from the popular climbers, and there are graceful wild Clematises which have never come into gardens. The same may be said of the Honeysuckles, wild Vines, and various other families. Much of the northern Climbers for Trees and Bushes 69 tree world is garlanded with creepers, which we may grow in similar ways, and also on rough banks and in hedgerows. The trees in our pleasure grounds, however, have the first claim. LARGE WHITE CLEMATIS ON YEW TREES AT GREAT TEW. ,C. montana grandiflora.) Sometime ago I saw a Weeping Willow, on the margin of a lake, its trunk clothed with Virginian Creeper, and the effect in autumn, when the sun shone through the drooping branches of the Willow 70 The Wild Garden —whose leaves were just becoming tinged with gold —upon the crimson of the creeper-covered trunk was very fine. The Hop is avery effective plant for draping trees, but the shoots should be thinned out in spring and not more than three or four allowed to climb up to the tree. When the leader emerges from the top of the bush, and throws its long, graceful wreaths of Hops over the dark green foliage, the contrast is most effective. The Wistaria is a host in itself, and should be freely planted against Pines and other trees, also by itself on banks and in the open; its use on houses is too limited for the noblest of hardy flowering climbers. I have planted many against Pines and other trees in plantations. A correspondent, who has added largely to the charms of a place in Suffolk by means of the wild garden, writes as follows :— ‘Some time ago I discovered and had removed from the woods to the pleasure grounds a robust Holly, which had been taken entire possession of by a wild Honey- suckle, which, originating at the root of the tree, had scrambled up through the branches to the top, and there, extending itself in all directions, had formed a large head and hung in festoons all round. The Holly had endured the subjection for many years, and still seemed to put forth sufficient shoots and leaves annually to ensure a steady support to its companion.’ The Honeysuckle in question is an example of what might be done with such handsome climbers. The Climbers for Trees and Bushes 71 climbing Honeysuckles are now numerous as delight- ful, and require very little encouragement to garland a plantation, and flourish in hedgerow or on bank without care. Mr. Hovey, in a letter from Boston, Mass., wrote me as follows, on certain interesting aspects of tree drapery :— ‘Some years ago we planted three or four rows of climbers in nursery rows, about 100 feet long; these consisted of the ‘Virginian Creeper, the Moonseed (Menispermum), Periploca greeca, and Celastrus scan- dens; subsequent- ly, it happened that four rows of Arbor- CLIMBING SHRUB (CELASTRUS), ISOLATED ON THE vitees were planted GRASS; way of growing woody Climbers away from walls or other supports. on one side, and about the same number of rows of Smoke trees, Phila- delphus, and Dogwood (Cornus florida) on the other. For three or four years many of these climbers were taken up annually until rather too old to remove, and year by year the Arbor-vitees and shrubs were thinned until what were too large to transplant remained. The land was not wanted then, and the few scattered trees and climbers 72 The Wild Garden grew on until the climbers had fairly taken possession of the trees, and they are now too beautiful to disturb! Some of the Arbor-vite are overrun with the Moonseed (Menispermum), whose large leaves overlap one another like slates on a roof. Over others, the leaves of the Peri- ploca scramble, and also the Celastrus, and on still others the deep green leaves of the Ampelopsis completely fes- toon the tree; from among the tops of the Sumach the feathery tendrils of the Ampelopsis, and, just now, its deep blue berries, hold full sway. The Apios tuberosa is indigenous, and springs up everywhere as soon as our land is neglected. This also has overrun several trees, and coils up and wreaths each outstretching branch with its little bunches of fragrant brownish flowers. One Hem- lock Spruce has every branch loaded with the Apios and profuse with blossoms. When such strong climbers as Bignonia and Wistaria take possession of a shrub they generally injure it; but the very slender stems of Meni- spermum and Apios die entirely to the ground after the first sharp frost, and the slender stems of the others do not appear to arrest the growth of the Arbor-vite.’ But the noblest kind of climbers forming drapery for trees are not so often seen as some of the general favourites mentioned above. A neglected group are the wild Vines, plants of the highest beauty, which, if allowed to spring through the tall trees, which they would quickly do, would soon charm by their bold grace. With these might be associated certain free-growing species of Ampelopsis. In the garden of MM. Van Eden, at Haarlem, I was surprised to see a Liane, in the shape of Aristolochia Sipho