"The columbine is another plant that is quite likely to be found in rocky places. Standing below a ledge and looking up, one sees nestled here and there in rocky crevices one plant or more of columbine. The nodding red heads bob on wiry, slender stems. The roots do not strike deeply into the soil; in fact, often the soil hardly covers them. Now, just because the columbine has little soil, it does not signify that it is indifferent to the soil conditions. For it always has lived, and always should live, under good drainage conditions. I wonder if it has struck you, how really hygienic plants are? Plenty of fresh air, proper drainage, and good food are fundamentals with plants.
"It is evident from study of these plants how easy it is to find out what plants like. After studying their feelings, then do not make the mistake of huddling them all together under poor drainage conditions.
"I always have a feeling of personal affection for the bluets. When they come I always feel that now things are beginning to settle down outdoors. They start with rich, lovely, little delicate blue blossoms. As June gets hotter and hotter their colour fades a bit, until at times they look quite worn and white. Some people call them Quaker ladies, others innocence. Under any name they are charming. They grow in colonies, sometimes in sunny fields, sometimes by the road-side. From this we learn that they are more particular about the open sunlight than about the soil.
"If you desire a flower to pick and use for bouquets, then the wild geranium is not your flower. It droops very quickly after picking and almost immediately drops its petals. But the purplish flowers are showy, and the leaves, while rather coarse, are deeply cut. This latter effect gives a certain boldness to the plant that is rather attractive. The plant is found in rather moist, partly shaded portions of the woods. I like this plant in the garden. It adds good colour and permanent colour as long as blooming time lasts, since there is no object in picking it.
"I suppose little children would not have a perfect spring without the dog's tooth violet. The leaves are attractive and almost make the beauty of a bouquet. It is sometimes called trout lily. The mottled effect of the leaves accounts for the trout part of the name, and as for lily, it is a lily, and never belonged to the violet family at all. Dig the plant up, and the bulbous root tells the story. It really does belong to the lily family. The nodding yellow flower is pretty, too. These, when picked, last a long time in water. They like to grow in the neighbourhood of the brook. A moist, half-shaded half-open piece of land is their delight, and therefore in many gardens the trout lily might have to be left out.
"There is a sweet little flower called the wood anemone, or wind-flower. It is another modest little flower, white in colour. The constant nodding of the petals stirred by even a breath of wind gives it the name of wind-flower. These also grow in colonies. Have you noticed how social, but clannish, our wild flowers are? Especially is this true of the real woods flowers, rather than of the wayside flowers. The anemone grows in open places by the woods or the hillside. They are a sort of border plant evidently trying to leave the woods, but still bound to it.
"If in your yard there happens to be a big old fatherly tree or a decaying stump, plant wind-flowers all about it. You may make the flowers feel that they are on the edge of the woods.
"While I have numbered bloodroot among May flowers, it often does appear in April, and before the wood anemone. The silvery, white blossom pushes its head above the leaves in a fine fashion. They are sensitive flowers, closing partly in cloudy weather, and actually dropping to pieces in a rainstorm or under severe winds. The leaves are large, rather coarse, but pretty with their light under surfaces. The stems have tinges of red on them, a dark red sap in the roots. These roots bleed when disturbed. The Indians used to stain their faces with this orange sap-blood. You will find bloodroot growing in rich soil either in open woods or on rocky slopes.
"In a nice, rich, moist place put a few Jack-in-the pulpits. This flower is much like a child's jack-in-the-box. It is so different from most of our plants that it has the effect of the joker in a pack of cards. Push back the flap over Jack's face and you will see a club like a policeman's billy. Along this club the inconspicuous flowers are borne. Later, in the fall, the fruit forms, and inside, instead of rather uninteresting flowers, are bright red berries. So Jack jokes again.
"There is always a great feeling of joy when the first trilliums, or wake robins, appear. Walking in the deep, moist woods suddenly one sees a mass of big leaves and white flowers. The same irresistably lovely trilliums have come again. Three big leaves, then a flower stalk shooting up from the centre of this whorl of leaves, and on top the crowning glory—the three-petaled trillium flower. A fragrant white or pink form is called the nodding wake robin. These in a glance tell their wishes. The plant sometimes is nearly two feet high. So a clump of these could easily go toward the back of the wild-flower garden in shade and moist soil.