Mr. B. K. Bliss, of New York, in a note, said: "We have put into your
box a packet of flower seeds for the wild garden, which we think will
interest you. We also send you the initial number of our new paper,
"_The American Garden_." In this journal I find a very interesting
article on "The Wild Garden," how to make it, and a description of one
at the country residence of Mr. M. S. Beach, near Peekskill, from his
own pen. We will quote a part of it. He says: "We plowed a strip about
six feet wide all around a five-acre field, close to the fence. On this
plowed ground, the seed, previously well mixed, was thrown just as it
happened to come. The surface having afterwards been well smoothed over,
we waited the result. This proved satisfactory. We had a wild garden
indeed. The plants came up as thickly as they could grow, and flourished
and blossomed as freely as though they had enjoyed all the care usually
given to hot-house exotics.
"Sweet Alyssum, Mignonnette, the pretty blue Nemophila and bright
colored Phlox Drummondii seemed to cover the ground. Morning Glories of
every shade and delicate Cypress vines tried to cover the fences and run
up every tree. Quaint little yellow and green Gourds appeared in the
most unexpected places, and the whole bed seemed to be ablaze with the
orange and yellow of the Eschscholtzia, Marigolds, Calendula Officinalis
and Zinnias. One of the chief charms of this wild flower bed was the
variety and change--not from season to season, but from day to day.
Every morning would find some new, unexpected, and previously forgotten
flower in bloom."
The packet of Flower Seeds for the "Wild Garden" consists of more than a
hundred varieties, sufficient for a square rod of ground. There must
needs be a peculiar charm in the "Wild Garden." When one wearies of the
monotonous ribbon beds and geometrical designs so long in fashion, they
can turn to the spot where flowers run riot at their own sweet will, and
give daily surprises because sown broadcast without any regard to their
names and location. Multitudes there are, who, with abundance of land
at their command, can have one on a large scale, others can have, but a
small spot. There are many who have ground specially adapted by its
wildness for the blending of the cultivated flowers with those which
grow in their native dells or woods. Wild shrubs, wild flowers, wild
climbers, can be transplanted to situations quite like their own. There
can be ferneries and rockeries, beds of violets and wild evergreens, and
combined with careless grace, such tropical plants and brilliant annuals
as would give the most pleasing effect and afford a beauty wholly
unique.
Make Home Beautiful.
Make your home beautiful--bring to it flowers;
Plant them around you to bud and to bloom;
Let them give light to your loneliest hours--
Let them bring light to enliven your gloom;
If you can do so, O make it an Eden
Of beauty and gladness almost divine;
'Twill teach you to long for that home you are needing,
The earth robed in beauty beyond this dark clime.
A Talk About Stocking the Garden.
"The flowers we love?--They are those we gathered
Years ago, when we played at home!
Flowers by the door stone, dropped and scattered
Here and there as a child would roam."
"How shall I stock my garden?" is a question often asked by amateurs.
That depends very much on the size, location and soil of the ground to
be furnished. If the site is elaborate, and the beds to be geometrically
laid out, much skill, artistic taste and generous expenditure is needful
to produce a fine effect. If the flower beds are cut in the lawn a
different classification and arrangement of plants will be needful. If
they consist of long beds bordering a walk, or one bed only, beneath the
front window, there needs to be a grouping of flowers adapted to the
situation. None but the "wild garden" ought to be stocked hap-hazard
style. Arrange always so that there shall be a succession of flowers
during the entire season, for if you devote a space for those of brief
duration, you will by and by have a barren spot by no means pleasing.
The most exposed situations ought, of course, to be arranged with
special reference to the best possible effects or continuity of bloom
and harmony of colors. Don't mix in all sorts of colors and sizes of
plants in any bed. Masses of distinctive colors always have a fine
effect. Where there are varieties that have more show of flowers than of
leaves, it is well to intersperse plants whose beauty lies more in their
foliage than in blossoms.
The beautiful Coleuses, Achyranthes and Alternanthera, with their richly
colored leaves, and Pyrethrums with their vivid green lancelated
foliage, are very effective for this purpose. Cannas are very fine among
tall, free blooming plants, particularly for centers. Care ought always
to be had in selections, so that a tall and coarse plant shall never
have for its surroundings the low and delicate growers. Imagine the
effect of a gorgeous California Sunflower or a towering Hollyhock in the
midst of a bed of Pansies, or Tea Roses, or a Dahlia in a bed of
Verbenas! Have your large stocky plants in a bed by themselves, unless
it be as a background border for the more delicate flowers. A long bed
running beside a fence, or one beneath the windows of a dwelling-house,
can have, with good effect, a dense background of shrubs or Pompone
Dahlias, or even the taller Dahlias, if relieved by a fence. Where there
is a large bed directly beneath the front windows, a good arrangement is
to have, first, trailing vines that shall cover far up the sides of the
dwelling. For this, the Ipomoeas are very appropriate; of these there
are numerous varieties. _I. Bona Nox_, with its large fragrant blossoms,
which however, expand in the evening; Mexicana _Grandiflora Alba_,
immense flowers of white, long tube, a native of Mexico; grows to the
height of ten feet. _I. Hederacea Superba_ is bright blue, with white
margin, Ivy-like foliage, and _I. Fol Mormoratis_, a new Japanese
variety, with foliage beautifully mottled and marbled with white;
_Coccinea_, or "Star" Ipomea, bears a great profusion of small flowers,
scarlet striped with white. With any of these, vines of the Canary Bird
Flower intermingled, would have a superb effect; the light green, deeply
lacinated leaves and bright, yellow fringed flowers, proving a marked
contrast to the foliage and blossoms of the Ipomea. It is a very rapid
grower, and will climb and branch out ten feet or more. In front of
these climbers, or whatever others may be preferred, a row of Sweet
Peas, quite thickly set, can be trained so as to fully cover the vines
below the flowering branches, and to conceal the unsightliness of these
low down, a row of Pyrethrums or some dwarf compact plants would be
attractive. Then a walk, if the bed is sufficiently wide. The plants on
the opposite side can be arranged so as to have those of medium height
next to the path, and low bedding ones for the foreground. Verbenas are
very fine for this, and so is the Double Portulaca. For an edging, many
things are appropriate; whether one desires merely a low green, or a
border of dwarf blooming plants. For the latter, we know of nothing
prettier than the new dwarf Candytuft, Tom Thumb. Its habit is low and
bushy, and its clusters of white blossoms continue a very long time.
Mr. Vick has for several years recommended Thrift as the best edging
plant for northern climates. It is easily propagated from cuttings;
every piece will make a plant, if taken in the fall or spring, and is
perfectly hardy. It bears tiny clusters of pink flowers, and the foliage
is fine for floral work.
In arranging your garden stock study the adaptions of your plants to
certain positions. Some require for their best development, a great deal
of sunshine, others require somewhat sheltered positions. Portulacas
revel in dry and sunny spots, laughing at drought, while Pansies love a
cool and moist situation, therefore to bed them in a sandy soil, and a
position where they would be exposed to the intense sunshine of mid-day,
and the Portulaca in the sheltered, moist situation would be a great
mistake.
Coleuses ought not to be set in a very open sunny place, but with plants
that will serve as a protection somewhat, or they will lose their vivid
markings. We observed this first with C. Shah; when exposed to a strong
light, the rich, velvety maroon changed to a dull color hue, but when
partially shaded it was of a very deep, rich color. The next summer we
had the beautiful Pictus, and its leaves looked as though they were
indeed painted with yellow, brown and green, but exposed for a time to
the direct sunshine nearly all day, it changed to a dark green, with
brown markings, and, robbed of its gold, it possessed no special beauty.
We speak only of our own experience, which has not been limited by any
means to these two varieties. We have had a few that would retain their
distinctive markings well, even in quite an exposed situation.
In the arrangement of your garden, have it adapted to its surroundings.
The broad leaved Palms, the Tropical Caladiums, the stately Cannas, the
Cape Jessamine and Crape Myrtle are in perfect harmony with the well
kept lawn and stately mansion, but quite out of place in the simple
border of a vegetable garden, or rough grass-plot belonging to a low,
plain cottage.
I will tell you of a bit of a garden furnished in harmony with its
surroundings. It was rudely dug and roughly finished by two very small
hands. It was a very wee bed, indeed. It was fenced on the west side by
a rough board shed; on the north by an old stump; the other side and end
had no protection. Without any method of arrangement, or reference to
artistic effects, here was massed the following assortment: Monks Hood,
Bachelors Buttons, Butter and Eggs, Star of Bethlehem, Poppies and
Marigolds; these last more odorous than fragrant. Old fashioned flowers
truly. But they harmonized with their surroundings, and the little pale
faced child thought them very beautiful.
It is not essential to harmony however, that the flower bed be rudely
prepared, though the cot be lowly and its surroundings rough; the
garden, however small, can be neatly prepared, provided there are
stronger and older hands than those of the little maid referred to, and
there may be a display of taste in the arrangement of the most common
flowers, in our day at least, where beautiful varieties are within reach
of all. But it was not so fifty years ago; boxes of flower seeds were
not to be found in the shops; catalogues were not scattered broadcast
like autumn leaves and as free; "a greenhouse at your door," was not
then, as now, a verity. School girls exchanged their limited floral
treasures, and now and then a slip could be begged from the fortunate
possessor of a few house plants. But if greenhouse flowers were rare,
there were thousands in the meadows, on the hills, in the woods; the
sweet May flowers, unknown then to the little maiden as the Trailing
Arbutus, the Anemone, Hepatica, Columbine, Violets of different hues,
Wild Roses, Gay Lilies, and late in autumn, the lovely fringed Gentian:
"Each chalice molded in divinest grace,
Each brimmed with pure, intense and perfect blue."
What could be more lovely among the garnered treasures of the
greenhouse? But our talk is a long one, and we will defer to another
what we have further to say on this subject.
The Phlox Drummondii.
"Flowers for gladness and flowers for sorrow,
Shadowing forth what we fail to tell;
Mystic symbols of tender meanings,
Such as the heart interprets well."
This is one of the most desirable of our annuals, coming into bloom
early in the season and continuing in flower till frost. They are very
effective in massed colors, and make fine ribbon beds. Contrasting
shades should be selected. A writer in the _Garden_ says that the
following are very desirable for this purpose: "Phlox Lothair, salmon
shaded with violet; Mons Henrique, brilliant reddish crimson; Venus,
pure white; Mons Goldenschugh, rosy violet; Spenceri, dark rosy lilac.
An excellent front edging for this ribbon bed is the variegated
Periwinkle. In order to grow them thoroughly well, and so to insure a
lengthened period of blooming, the ground should be deeply trenched and
well enriched with good manure from the farm yard, and not more than six
heads of bloom should be allowed to each plant. Thus treated, when
planted in long lines, it is difficult to convey an impression of these
and similar varieties."
There are many beautiful varieties of color; deep blood purple,
brilliant scarlet, large blue with white eye, not truly a blue, but the
nearest approach to it of any; Leopoldii, splendid deep pink, with white
eye; Carmine Queen and Violet with a large white eye; Vick's _New Double
White_, the only one that is reliable, from seed, to produce double
flowers. Then there are the buffs and the stripes, crimson striped with
white, and rose and purple. Mr. Vick, who makes a specialty of the
Drummondii Phlox, they being a favorite with him, devotes acres to their
cultivation, and who has been experimenting with them for several
years, has produced several new sorts that are very fine; one of them is
deep red with a fringed edge. There have been very marked improvements
since this plant was first discovered in Texas by Mr. Drummond, a
botanical collector sent out by the Glasgow Botanical Society, and it
was one of the last, if not the very last, sent to Europe by him. He
soon after went to Cuba, where he died of a fever in the prime of life.
Sir N. J. Hooker named the plant after its discoverer as a memento. When
first discovered it was very inferior to the flowers seen in our
gardens, as is very apparent from an engraving of it taken from a
drawing in Mr. Vick's possession, which was made in 1838, three years
after its discovery. It is given in _Vick's Magazine_ for September,
1880, with the items we have cited. The word Phlox signifies flame, and
is supposed to have been applied in allusion to the flame-like form of
the bud.
A lady who had excellent success with her seedlings, started early in a
box, and bedded out one cloudy day in May, says: "I was surprised to
find flowers on the plants when so young and small. I don't believe they
had been transplanted five days before half of them had flowers, and
soon the rest followed, and for more than two months my bed has been
glorious--a mass of bright colors more beautiful than any carpet or
dress pattern ever made. It is near the middle of September, and if the
frost will only keep away, it looks as though they would keep on
flowering for years. Tell everybody to have a Phlox bed and how to do
it. It is the cheapest pleasure possible."
CARRIE, in _Vick's Magazine_.