Although certain phases of all plant growth, cultivated or wild alike, may be mysterious, there is assuredly no mystery attached to wildflowers.
For nearly two decades, we’ve been growing wildflowers, bringing them together from all parts of the country until now our living collection embraces some 2000 species, often represented by many individuals raised in the place from the originally collected stock or seed obtained in the wild.
We Do Not Find Wildflowers Difficult To Propagate
The emphasis here has always been on their artificial increase, and through the years, trial after trial, using commonly accepted propagation methods, has been made.
Failures have been many, of course, but with accurate records of failures and successes alike, a workable method for almost every species has been found.
With many, more than one is practicable. Briefly, a considerable group can be divided readily; in another, cuttings root easily and grows well afterward.
With still more, seed age under controlled conditions is easy. It is possible to propagate and grow most wildflowers as easily, quickly, and economically as related cultivated plants.
From this long and wide experience, I must conclude that as far as propagation is concerned, there is no mystery about the behavior of wildflowers as contrasted to comparable cultivated sorts. They both yield readily to the same methods.
Neither Are They Indifferent To Improvement by Selection
Nature is not exactly prodigal, with original breaks in the wild or otherwise. Such variants are likely to be more frequent among cultivated plants because here, the difference between fecundity and nurture is far less.
In other words, many more plants mature from like quantities of seed, consequently greatly increasing chances for deviation from the usual.
Then too, in cultivation, plants are much closer, and constant observation and any outstanding individuals are likely to be seen and fostered.
At that, variants are not infrequent in the wild. Sometimes, several individuals with the same characteristics differing from the regular are found closely associated in plots with typical blooms.
Using the quoted trillium as an example, in any large stand of T. grandiflorum, it is not unusual to find flowers with wide, thick overlapping petals markedly better than the abundant type.
At Garden In The Woods, there are six widely variable forms, including some almost as double as a camellia. Of the so-called red trillium, T. erection, there are four, some pure white.
Albino-flowered forms are almost a common variant among wildflowers. Our collection embraces nearly 60, including white cardinal flowers, white Rhodora, and white wild roses.
Violet variants are many. Of one species, we have six distinct sorts and lesser numbers of several others.
Different color forms among the wild lilies are frequently noted too. Mrs. J. Norman Henry showed a remarkable collection of Lilium philadelphicum, all different from the type, at the Boston Lily Show a few years back.
Doubles are also what we find among the wildflowers. If you come to Garden In The Woods at the blooming time, you can see double bird cherry, double trailing arbutus, two different double wild roses, double hepatica, double marsh marigold, double five finger, and double bloodroot in addition to the camellia-flowered trillium.
The Absence Of Natural Stands
The absence of large natural stands does not necessarily indicate non-production of viable seed but is more likely too much competition. Where competition is not severe, large natural stands do occur.
Trillium literally by the acre, hepatica, and bloodroot in utmost profusion, masses of frail dutchman’s breeches, sheets of wild blue phlox, big bogs blazing with marsh marigold, whole vistas aflame with cardinal flower – I’ve seen them all and many more.
Only last week, in a dry hilltop pasture where the hot sun blazed down, I came upon a considerable area floored with trailing arbutus growing so thickly it was almost impossible to avoid trampling it.
This last fittingly illustrates the adaptability inherent in some wildlings. How far this extends is still a matter for the experiment, but for years, a clump of the moisture-loving cardinal flower has been growing and blooming across from our greenhouse atop a steep dry slope.
In our little nursery, various of its several color forms thrive mightily under normal garden conditions, clean cultivation, and all, along with wild blue phlox, American globe flower, fire pink, columbine, sabatia, and the like. In partial shade hepatica, galax, ferns, and other woodlanders make big clumps enjoying freedom from competition.
It is by no means mysterious that seedling stands are better along paths, cuts, and landslides.
In the wild, entirely by chance, seed, to grow, must first fall in a spot favorable for germination and later contend with other often more robust and mature plants for survival.
Such disturbances of existing cover provide spots where competition is less and, consequently, better. The best-fringed gentian I ever saw, literally hundreds of plants in full bloom, were growing where a freshet had covered an area of grassland with sufficient soil nearly to choke out underlying growth.
The little gentian seedlings took full advantage of the opportunity and thrived lustily.
I could go on and on to compare some of the great groups of commonly cultivated plants such as asters, phlox, lilies, iris, rhododendron, azalea, and multitudes of others with their wild ancestors or brothers only to pile up evidence that, fundamentally, they are the same.
Can You Use Fertilizer On Wildflowers Too?
Yes. Probably to a greater degree than we yet know. One of my friends annually top-dresses his sod of polypody and treats a patch of trailing arbutus with well-rotted cow manure and how they grow. Arbutus especially revels in this medium and repays him with lush growth and many big flowers.
Five years ago, a single stalk of Trillium grandiflorum appeared in one of the Garden In The Woods areas, which yearly receives a heavy commercial fertilizer application.
This is to its liking, for this spring, it produced 50 stems, each crowned with a big white flower.
Cardinal Flowers
Cardinal flowers like fertilizer too. In proof, I am moved to set down a story I often tell about my late friend Willis Holden who had such a superb garden that cardinal flowers grew seven feet tall with thick four-foot spikes of bloom.
As a reason for such phenomenal development Willis, if asked, would tell you in his Yanke? drawl: “Well, you see, I used to keep chickens, and up in those houses, there is still considerable dressing. I just take the pain and throw it around and throw it around.”
He did, and they did grow.
44659 by Will C. Curtis