TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.
—Where necessary, illustrations have been relocated.
List of illustration has been therefore adapted.
—Bold text has been rendered as =bold text=.
THE WILD GARDEN
The
WILD GARDEN
Or our Groves and Gardens made beautiful
by the Naturalisation of Hardy Exotic
Plants; being one way onwards from the
Dark Ages of Flower Gardening, with
suggestions for the Regeneration of the
Bare Borders of the London Parks.
BY W. ROBINSON, F. L. S.
_THIRD EDITION_
Illustrated by Alfred Parsons
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
NEW YORK: SCRIBNER AND WELFORD
1883
_By the same Author._
THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN: ITS STYLE AND ARRANGEMENT. Followed by
an ALPHABETICAL DESCRIPTION OF ALL THE PLANTS BEST SUITED FOR ITS
EMBELLISHMENT, THEIR CULTURE, AND POSITION. With numerous Illustrations.
Medium 8vo. 15s.
THE PARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS, CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THE WANTS OF
OTHER CITIES AND OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE GARDENS. _Third Edition._ With
350 Illustrations. 8vo. 18s.
ALPINE FLOWERS FOR ENGLISH GARDENS. HOW THEY MAY BE GROWN IN ALL PARTS
OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. With Illustrations of Rock–gardens, Natural and
Artificial. _Third Edition._ With Woodcuts. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
THE SUB–TROPICAL GARDEN; OR, BEAUTY OF FORM IN THE FLOWER GARDEN; with
Illustrations of all the finer Plants used for this purpose. _Second
Edition._ With Illustrations. Small 8vo. 5s.
HARDY FLOWERS. DESCRIPTIONS OF UPWARDS OF 1300 OF THE MOST ORNAMENTAL
SPECIES; with Directions for their Culture, &c. _Fourth Edition._ Post
8vo. 3s. 6d.
GOD’S ACRE BEAUTIFUL; OR, THE CEMETERIES OF THE FUTURE. _Third Edition._
With Illustrations. 8vo. 7s. 6d.
[Illustration: Colonies of Poet’s Narcissus and Broad–leaved Saxifrage,
etc.—_Frontispiece._]
[Illustration: Columbines and Geraniums in meadow–grass.]
PREFACE.
When I began, some years ago, to plead the cause of the innumerable
hardy flowers against the few tender ones, put out at that time 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
the ways in which it might be introduced to our gardens; and, among
various ideas that then occurred to me, was the name and scope of the
“wild garden.” I was led to think of the enormous number of beautiful
hardy plants from other countries which might be naturalised, with a
very slight amount of trouble, in many situations in our gardens and
woods—a world of delightful plant beauty that we might in this way make
happy around us, in places now weedy, or half bare, or useless. I saw
that we could not only grow thus a thousandfold more lovely flowers
than are commonly seen in what is called the flower garden, but also a
number which, by any other plan, have no chance whatever of being seen
around us. This is a system which will give us more beauty than ever
was dreamt of in gardens, without interfering with formal gardening in
any way.
In this illustrated edition, by the aid of careful drawings, I have
endeavoured to suggest in what the system consists; but if I were to
write a book for every page that this contains, I could not hope to
suggest the many beautiful aspects of vegetation which the wild garden
will enable us to enjoy at our doors.
The illustrations are, with a few slight 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, had given rise to the combinations or aspects of
vegetation sought. I cannot too heartily acknowledge the skill and
pains which Mr. Parsons devoted to the drawings, and to the success
which he has attained in illustrating the motive of the book, and such
good effects as have already been obtained where the idea has been
intelligently carried out.
There has been some misunderstanding as to the term “Wild Garden.” It
is applied essentially to the placing of perfectly hardy exotic plants
in places and under conditions where they will become established and
take care of themselves. It has nothing to do with the old idea of the
“wilderness,” though it may be carried out in connection with that. It
does not necessarily 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 growing
abundantly in meadows by the Thames side; by the perennial Lupine
dyeing an islet with its purple in a Scotch river; and by the Apennine
Anemone staining an English wood blue before the blooming of our blue
bells. Multiply these instances a thousandfold, illustrated by many
different types of plants and hardy climbers, from countries as cold or
colder than our own, and one may get a just idea of the wild garden.
Some have erroneously represented it as allowing a garden to run wild,
or sowing annuals promiscuously; whereas it studiously avoids meddling
with the garden proper at all, except in attempting the improvements of
bare shrubbery borders in the London parks and elsewhere; but these are
waste spaces, not gardens.
I wish it to be kept distinct in the mind from the various important
phases of hardy plant growth in groups, beds, and borders, in which
good culture and good taste may produce many happy effects; distinct
from the rock garden or the borders reserved for choice hardy flowers
of all kinds; from the best phase of the sub–tropical garden—that
of growing hardy plants of fine form; from the ordinary type of
spring garden; and from the gardens, so to say, of our own beautiful
native flowers in our woods and wilds. How far the wild garden may
be carried out as an aid to, or in connection with, any of the above
in the smaller class of gardens, can be best decided on the spot in
each case. In the larger 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 wholly new and beautiful aspects of
vegetation may be created by its means.
MAY 28, 1881.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
EXPLANATORY 1
CHAPTER II.
EXAMPLE FROM THE FORGET–ME–NOT FAMILY 9
CHAPTER III.
EXAMPLE FROM HARDY BULBS AND TUBERS IN GRASS 15
CHAPTER IV.
EXAMPLE FROM THE GLOBE FLOWER ORDER 21
CHAPTER V.
PLANTS CHIEFLY FITTED FOR THE WILD GARDEN 32
CHAPTER VI.
DITCHES AND NARROW SHADY LANES, COPSES, HEDGEROWS, AND THICKETS 36
CHAPTER VII.
DRAPERY FOR TREES AND BUSHES 43
CHAPTER VIII.
THE COMMON SHRUBBERY, WOODS AND WOODLAND DRIVES 51
CHAPTER IX.
THE BROOK–SIDE, WATER–SIDE, AND BOG GARDENS 67
CHAPTER X.
ROSES FOR THE WILD GARDEN, AND FOR HEDGEROWS, FENCES, AND GROUPS 81
CHAPTER XI.
WILD GARDENING ON WALLS OR RUINS 88
CHAPTER XII.
SOME RESULTS 92
CHAPTER XIII.
A PLAN FOR THE EMBELLISHMENT OF THE SHRUBBERY BORDERS IN LONDON
PARKS 111
CHAPTER XIV.
THE PRINCIPAL TYPES OF HARDY EXOTIC FLOWERING PLANTS FOR THE
WILD GARDEN 120
CHAPTER XV.
SELECTIONS OF HARDY EXOTIC PLANTS FOR VARIOUS POSITIONS IN THE
WILD GARDEN 163
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Colonies of Poet’s Narcissus and Broad–leaved Saxifrage, etc.
_Frontispiece_
Columbine and Geraniums in meadow–grass v
Large flowered Meadow Rue in the Wild Garden, type of plant
mostly excluded from the Garden 1
Night effect of large evening Primrose in the Wild Garden
(Œnothera Lamarkiana) _To face page_ 4
A “mixed border” with tile edging, the way in which the
beautiful hardy flowers of the world have been grown in
gardens hitherto, when grown at all. (_Sketched in a large
garden, 1878_) 5
Blue flowered Composite plant; fine foliage and habit; type
of noble plants excluded from Gardens. (Mulgedium Plumieri) 6
Wood Anemone 8
Caucasian Comfrey in shrubbery 9
The Cretan Borage (Borago cretica) 12
Flowers of Geneva Bugle (Ajuga genevensis), Dwarf Boragewort 14
Star of Bethlehem in Grass 15
The association of exotic and British wild flowers in the Wild
Garden.—The Bell–flowered Scilla, naturalised with our
own Wood Hyacinth 16
The Turk’s Cap Lily, naturalised in the grass by wood–walk 19
Crocuses in turf, in grove of Summer leafing trees 20
Group of Globe flowers (Trollius) in marshy place; type of
the nobler Northern flowers little cultivated in gardens 21
The Mountain Clematis (C. montana) 22
The White Japan Anemone in the Wild Garden 23
Anemones in the Riviera. Thrive equally well in any open
soil here, only flowering later _To face page_ 24
The Green Hellebore in the Wild Garden 26
Tall perennial Larkspurs, naturalised in Shrubbery (1878) 28
Double Crimson Pæonies in grass 30
Eupatorium purpureum 32
The Giant Scabious (8 feet high). (Cephalaria procera) 32
Giant Cow parsnip. Type of Great Siberian herbaceous vegetation.
For rough places only 35
Foliage of Dipsacus, on hedge–bank in spring 36
The large white Bindweed, type of nobler climbing plants, with
annual stems. For copses, hedgerows, and shrubberies 39
The Nootka Bramble; type of free–growing flowering shrub.
For copses and woods 40
The Yellow Allium (A. Moly) naturalised 42
Periploca græca (climber) 43
Large White Clematis on Yew tree at Great Tew. (C. montana
grandiflora) 45
The way the climbing plants of the world are crucified in
gardens—winter effect (_a faithful sketch_) 45
Climbing shrub (Celastrus), isolated on the grass; way of
growing woody Climbers away from walls or other supports 47
A Liane in the North. Aristolochia and Deciduous Cypress 48
A beautiful accident.—A colony of Myrrhis odorata, established
in shrubbery, with white Harebells here and there 51
Large White Achilleas spread into wide masses under shade of
trees in shrubbery 53
Lilies coming up through carpet of White Arabis 56
Colony of Narcissus in properly spaced shrubbery 57
The American White Wood–Lily (Trillium grandiflorum) in
Wild Garden, in wood bottom in leaf–mould _To face page_ 58
The Lily of the Valley in a copse 63
Solomon’s Seal and Herb Paris, in copse by streamlet 67
Colony of hardy exotic Flowers, naturalised by brook–side 70
Valley in Somersetshire, with Narcissi, Marsh Marigolds, and
Primroses _To face page_ 70
Cyperus longus 73
The Cape Pond Weed in an English ditch in winter 75
Day Lily by margin of water 76
Marsh Marigold and Iris in early spring 78
The same spot as in previous sketch, with aftergrowth of Iris,
Meadow Sweet, and Bindweed 79
Partridge Berry (Gaultheria) 80
Wild Rose growing on a Pollard Ash in Orchardleigh Park,
Somerset 83
White Climbing Rose scrambling over old Catalpa Tree
_To face page_ 84
Climbing Rose isolated on grass 87
Arenaria balearica, in a hole in wall at Great Tew 88
Cheddar Pink, Saxifrage, and Ferns, on cottage wall at Mells 89
The Yellow Fumitory on wall (Corydalis lutea) 91
Large Japan Sedum (S. spectabile) and Autumn Crocuses in the
Wild Garden 92
Crane’s Bill, wild, in grass 94
Large–leafed Saxifrage in the Wild Garden 95
Tiger Lilies in Wild Garden at Great Tew _To face page_ 98
Large–flowered Clematis 102
Sun Roses (Cistus) and other exotic hardy plants among heather,
on sandy slope _To face page_ 104
Wood and herbaceous Meadow–sweets grouped together in Mr.
Hewittson’s garden 105
Woodruff and Ivy 108
Tailpiece 110
Dug and mutilated Shrubbery in St. James’s Park. _Sketched in
winter of 1879_ 111
Colony of the Snowdrop–Anemone in Shrubbery not dug.
Anemone taking the place of weeds or bare earth 115
Colony of the Summer Snowflake, on margin of shrubbery 119
The Monkshood, naturalised by wet ditch in wood 121
The white Narcissus–like Allium, in the orchards of Provence;
type of family receiving little place in gardens which may
be beautiful for a season in wild places 123
The Alpine Windflower (Anemone alpina) 124
Siberian Columbine in rocky place 126
Tall Asphodel in copse 127
The foliage of the Meadow Saffron in Spring 132
The White–flowered European Clematis (C. erecta) 133
Cyclamens in the Wild Garden; from nature 134
A South European Bindweed creeping up the stems of an Iris
in an English garden 135
A Sea Holly; Eryngium 138
Groups of Funkia Sieboldi 140
A hardy Geranium 141
Snowdrops, wild, by streamlet in valley 142
Sun Rose on limestone rocks 144
White Lily in Wild Garden 146
Everlasting Pea, creeping up stem in shrubbery 148
Type of fine–leaved umbellate plants seldom grown in gardens 149
The Bee Balm, Monarda. American wood plant 150
The Great Japan Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum). (Showing
the plant in flower) 152
Phlomis. Type of handsome Labiates; admirably suited for
the Wild Garden 153
The tall Ox–eye daisy (Pyrethrum serotinum) 154
The Great Reed of Southern Europe (Arundo Donax) 155
Telekia. Type of the Larger Composites, excluded from gardens
proper 159
Group of Tritoma, in grass 160
A tall Mullein 161
Ophrys in grass 163
Rock steps with Omphalodes 175
Butterbur and Double Furze on margin of lake 176
THE WILD GARDEN.
ONE WAY ONWARDS FROM THE DARK AGES OF FLOWER–GARDENING.
CHAPTER I.
EXPLANATORY.
[Illustration: Large–flowered Meadow Rue in the Wild Garden, type of
plant mostly excluded from the Garden.]
About a generation ago a taste began to be manifested for placing a
number of tender plants in the open air in summer, with a view to the
production of showy masses of decided colour. The subjects selected
were mostly from sub–tropical climates and of free growth; placed
annually in the open air of our genial early summer, and in fresh rich
earth, every year they grew rapidly and flowered abundantly during
the summer and early autumn months, and until cut down by the first
frosts. The showy colour of this system was very attractive, and since
its introduction there has been a gradual rooting out of all the old
favourites in favour of this “bedding” system. This was carried to such
an extent that it was not uncommon, indeed it has been the rule, to
find the largest gardens in the country without a single hardy flower,
all energy and expense being devoted to the production of the few
exotics required for the summer decoration. It should be distinctly
borne in mind that the expense for this system is an annual one;
that no matter what amount of money may be spent in this way, or how
many years may be devoted to perfecting it, the first sharp frost of
November announces a yet further expense and labour, usually more heavy
than the preceding.
Its highest results need hardly be described; they are seen in all our
great 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, or in a repulsively gaudy manner:
nearly every private garden is taken possession of by the same things.
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 introduction of fine–leaved plants, but all are agreed
that a great mistake has been made in destroying all our old flowers,
from Lilies to Hepaticas, though very few persons indeed have any idea
of the numbers of beautiful subjects in this way which we may gather
from every northern and temperate clime to adorn 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 flowers than the most ardent admirer of
the old style of garden ever dreams of, by naturalising innumerable
beautiful natives of many regions of the earth in our woods and copses,
rougher parts of pleasure grounds, and in unoccupied 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 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 Windflowers, and Columbines, and Rock–roses, and Violets,
and Cranesbills, and countless Pea–flowers, and mountain Avens, and
Brambles, and Cinquefoils, and Evening Primroses, and Clematis,
and Honeysuckles, and Michaelmas Daisies, and Wood–hyacinths, and
Daffodils, and Bindweeds, and Forget–me–nots, and blue–eyed Omphalodes,
and Primroses, and Day Lilies, and Asphodels, and St. Bruno’s Lilies,
and the almost innumerable plants which form the flora of the northern
and temperate portions of vast continents.
It is beyond the power of pen or pencil to picture the beauty of
these plants. Innumerable and infinitely varied scenes occur in the
wilder parts of all northern and temperate regions, at many different
elevations. The loveliness and ceaselessly varying charms of such
scenes are indeed difficult to describe or imagine; 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 realised 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 sometimes take nearly complete
possession of whole woods; but, with all our treasures in this way,
we have no attractions in or near our gardens compared to what it is
within our power to create. There are many countries with winters
as cold as, or colder than, our own, possessing a rich flora; and
by taking the best hardy exotics and establishing them in wild or
half–wild spots, we may produce beautiful pictures in such places. To
most people a pretty plant in a free state is more attractive 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 and brambles and grass around.
By the means presently to be explained, numbers of plants of the
highest order of beauty and fragrance, and clothed with pleasant
associations, may be seen perfectly at home in the spaces now devoted
to rank grass and weeds, and by wood walks in our shrubberies and
ornamental plantations.
[Illustration: Night effect of large evening Primrose in the Wild
Garden (Œnothera Lamarkiana)]
Among my reasons for advocating this system are the following:—
_First_, because hundreds of the finest hardy flowers will thrive much
better in rough and wild places than ever they did in the old–fashioned
border. Even comparatively small ones, like the ivy–leaved Cyclamen, a
beautiful plant that we rarely find in perfection in gardens, I have
seen perfectly naturalised and spread all over the mossy surface of a
thin wood.
[Illustration: A “mixed border” with tile edging, the way in which
the beautiful hardy flowers of the world have been grown in gardens
hitherto, when grown at all. (_Sketched in a large garden_, 1878.)]
_Secondly_, because they will look infinitely better than ever they
did in gardens, in consequence of fine–leaved plant, fern, and flower,
and climber, grass and trailing shrub, relieving each other in ways
innumerable and delightful. Any one of a thousand combinations will
prove as far superior to any aspect of the old mixed border, or the
ordinary type of modern flower–garden, as is a lovely mountain valley
to a piece of the “black country.”
_Thirdly_, because, arranged as I propose, 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, bundles of decayed stems tied to sticks, making the place
look like the parade–ground of a number of crossing–sweepers. When
Lilies are sparsely dotted through masses of shrubs, their flowers
are admired more than if they were in isolated showy masses; when
they pass out of bloom they are unnoticed amidst the vegetation, and
not eyesores, as when in rigid unrelieved tufts in borders, etc. In a
wild or semi–wild state the beauty of individual species will proclaim
itself when at its height; and when out of bloom they will be succeeded
by other kinds, or lost among the numerous objects around.
[Illustration: Blue flowered Composite plant; fine foliage and habit;
type of noble plants excluded from gardens. (Mulgedium Plumieri.)]
_Fourthly_, because it will enable us to grow many plants that have
never yet obtained a place in our “trim gardens.” I allude to the
multitudes of plants which, not being so showy as those usually
considered worthy of a place in gardens, are never seen therein. The
flowers of many of these are of the highest order of beauty, especially
when seen in numbers. An isolated tuft of one of these, seen in a
formal border, may not be considered worthy of its place, while in
some wild glade, in a wood, as a little colony, grouped naturally,
or associated with like subjects, its effect may be exquisite. Among
the subjects usually considered unfit for garden cultivation may be
included a goodly number that, grown in gardens, are no addition to
them; subjects like the American Asters, Golden Rods, and like plants,
which merely overrun the choicer and more beautiful border–flowers
when planted amongst them. These coarse subjects 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
subjects like the winter Heliotrope, the handsome British Willow herb,
and many other plants which, while attractive in the garden, are apt to
spread about so rapidly as to become a nuisance there. Clearly these
should only be planted in wild and semi–wild places.
_Fifthly_, because we may in this way settle also the question of
spring flowers, and the spring garden, as well as that of hardy
flowers generally. In the way I suggest, many parts of every country
garden, and many suburban ones, may be made alive with spring flowers,
without interfering at least with the geometrical beds that have been
the worthless stock–in–trade of the so–called landscape–gardener for
centuries. The blue stars of the Apennine Anemone will be seen to
greater advantage “wild,” in shady or half–shady bare places, under
trees, than in any conceivable formal arrangement, and it is but one of
hundreds of sweet spring flowers that will succeed perfectly in the way
I propose.
_Sixthly_, because there can be few more agreeable phases of communion
with nature than naturalising 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 prairies of the New World, the woods and meadows of all the great
mountains of Europe; from Greece and Italy and Spain, from the sunny
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 home the pleasantest souvenirs
of the various scenes he has visited.
Moreover, the great merit of permanence belongs to this delightful
phase of gardening. Select a wild rough slope, and embellish it
with the handsomest and hardiest climbing plants,—say the noble
mountain Clematis from Nepal, the sweet C. Flammula from Southern
Europe, “Virginian creepers” in variety, the Nootka Bramble (Rubus
nutkanus and R. odoratus), various species of hardy vines, Jasmines,
Honeysuckles—British and European, and wild Roses. Arranged with some
judgment at first, such a colony might be left to take care of itself;
time would but add to its attractions, and the happy owner might go
away for years, and find it beautiful on his return.
[Illustration]