Evening star., 1945-12-01
This andThat

0y SHuTt6S T.. lTuCSUSH.
Don't invite handyman into your
yard after you have planted wild
flowers.
He is sure to pull them all up the mo-
ment he sees them. Very few persons
know these wildingS in their dormant
stages.
The ostrich ferns, for instance. are
odd-looking things with black hairlike
roots and dark, tightly-clrled fronds.
The sensitive fern is another curiosity.
1t spreads by runner and the plant man
gives you piece OF this runner about
three inches long. At one end is the
cluster OF greenish, peonylike shoots
which will be next seasons fronds Any
handyman will be delighted to pull this
one up the moment he sees it. He will
be sure to think it is weed
The sensitive fern is sensitive to frost,
that is where it gets its name. Covered
with leaves, however, it will go through
the winter nicely, and will spread over
an entire field if the soil is right for it.
If this fern thrives, it shows that the
field needs both fertilization and culti-
vation.
The shooting star, another favorite of
the real enthusiast, has another forma-
tion. The shoot is sharply pointed
bud about half an inch long. From the
base of this the roots spread stifdy out,
reminding one of a comet.
Most of these wild flowers can be
planted up until the time the ground
freezes. They should be placed along
the fence or in secluded corners where
no one is liable to step on them, for
after they are planted they do not look
like much
No one need expect wild flowers to last
forever. Shooting stars may thrive two
or three years, then flash out. Blood
roots, hepaticas, Jacobs ladders, Vir-
ginia bluebell, and Phlox divaricata
canadensis will thrive for years in some
gardens.
The true wild flowers are real chill
dren Of nature. They demand such di-
versity of soils and conditions that only
the gardener with an inquiring turn of
mind and possessed of a genuine spirit
of investigation should attempt to grow
them
The Indians knew and loved these
wild things. Every boy and girl in
botany class has found some of them
The trillium, Jack in the pulpit, blood
root and spring beauty, are familiar to
ALL
Many persons never realize that it will
not do just to snatch wild flowers from
their native haunts and expect them to
grow. Farmers may regard many of
them as weeds, but they are weeds with
difference. If they like the conditions
where they are they will grow like weeds,
but if the slightest thing is not to their
taste they will simply disappear.
What the wild flowers do is give the
person with too shady yard a chance
to garden. Once in the ground they
should not be cultivated. Once estab-
IShed they are best let alone This
may have some appeal for the lazy gar
dener.
They are not good for orthodox flower
beds because so many of them die after
blooming and then you do not know
where they are.
What, then, are the rewards Of wild
flowers?
They have the appeal Of poetry, of
gems, Of folk tunes. They must have
been created when nature was in one of
her good moods. The nature which
shows herself in mountainous waves, in
bolts Of lightning and In atomic energy
knows nothing about them It makes
no difference. They bloom on through
the forest and field and may even be in
duced to come into our gardens If we
are intelligent enough to know how to
welcome them. They stand for some
| thing very precious in an evil world of
government by compulsion which is,
alas, II we may believe the intent Of
various bills in Congress, what our Gov
ernment is becoming. What is the 'land
OF the free" to mean hereafter? The
wildfloWers know. Nobody ever COM
PEELED wildnower to grow where 1t
| didn't want to grow.