Evergreen Candytuft, Iberis.—Compact little evergreens, forming spreading bushes from 3 inches to 15 inches high, and sheeted with white flowers in spring and early summer. There are no plants more suitable for naturalisation in open or bare places, or, indeed, in any position where the vegetation is not strong enough to overrun them. They, however, attain greatest perfection when fully exposed to the sun, and are admirable for every kind of rocky or stony ground and banks.
Iris, Fleur de Lis.—These plants, once so well known in our gardens, rivalling (or rather exceeding) the lilies in beauty, are varied and numerous enough to make a wild garden by themselves. The many beautiful varieties of germanica will grow in almost any soil, and may be used with good effect in woods, copses, by wood walks, or near the margin of water. I. sibirica, rather a common kind, will grow in the water; and, as this is not generally known, it is worthy the notice of any one taking an interest in aquatics. It is probable that others of the beardless kinds will also do well with their roots below the water, and if so, they will one day much improve the rather poorly adorned margins of artificial waters. On the other hand, I. pumila, and the varieties of germanica, are often seen on the tops of old walls, on thatched roofs, etc., on the Continent, flowering profusely. These facts tend to show how many different positions may be adorned by the irises.[ill146]
Common Lupine, Lupinus polyphyllus.—Amidst the tallest and handsomest herbaceous plants, grouped where they may be seen from grass drives or wood walks, or in any position or soil. Excellent for islets or river banks, in which, or in copses, it spreads freely. There are several varieties, all worthy of culture.
Honesty, Lunaria.—This, which approaches the Stocks in the aspect of its fine purplish violet flowers, is quite removed from them by the appearance of its curious seed–vessels. It is one of the most valuable of all plants for naturalisation, and may be said to form a type by itself. It shows itself freely in dryish ground or on chalk banks, and is one of the prettiest objects to be met with in early summer in wood or wild.
Lily, Lilium.—There are many hardy lilies that may be naturalised. The situations that these grow in, from the high meadows of Northern Italy, dotted with the orange lily, to the woody gorges of the Sierras in California, rich with tall and fragrant kinds, are such as make their culture in copses, woods, rough grassy places, etc., a certainty. In woods where there is a rich deposit of vegetable matter the great American Lilium superbum, and no doubt some of the recently–discovered Californian lilies, will do well. The European lilies, dotted in the grass in the rough unmown glades, would not grow nearly so large as they do in the rich borders of our cottage gardens; but the effect of the single large blooms of the orange lily just level with the tops of the grass, in early summer, where it grows wild, is at least as beautiful as any aspect it has hitherto presented in gardens. Along the bed of small rivulets, in the bottom of narrow gorges densely shaded by great Thujas, Arbutus trees sixty and even eighty feet high, and handsome large–leaved evergreen oaks on the Sierras, I saw in autumn numbers of lily stems seven, eight, and nine feet high, so one could imagine what pictures they formed in early summer; therefore deep dykes and narrow shady lanes would afford congenial homes for various fine species. No mode of cultivating lilies in gardens is equal to that of dotting them through beds of rhododendrons and other American plants usually planted in peat; the soil of these, usually and very unwisely left to the rhododendrons alone, being peculiarly suited to the majority of the lily tribe. As for the wild garden, Mr. G. F. Wilson sent me a stem of Lilium superbum last year (1880) grown in a rich woody bottom, 11½ feet high!
Snowflake, Leucojum.—I have rarely seen anything more beautiful than a colony of the summer Snowflake on the margin of a tuft of rhododendrons in the gardens at Longleat. Some of the flowers were on stems nearly 3 feet high, the partial shelter of the bushes and good soil causing the plants to be unusually vigorous. Both the spring and summer Snowflakes (L. vernum and L. æstivum) are valuable plants for wild grassy places.
Gentian Lithosperm, Lithospermum prostratum.—A very distinct, prostrate, hairy, half–shrubby plant, with a profusion of flowers of as fine a blue as any gentian. Thrives vigorously in any deep sandy soil, and in such well deserves naturalisation among low rock plants, etc., in sunny positions. Probably other species of the genus will be found suitable for the same purpose.
Lychnis.—Handsome medium–sized perennials, with showy blooms, mostly of a brilliant rose or scarlet colour. If the type was only represented by the rose campion it would be a valuable one. This is a beautiful object in dry soils, on which it does not perish in winter. They are most fitted for association with dwarf or medium–sized perennials, in open places and in rich soil.
Honeysuckle, Lonicera.—Such favourites as these must not be omitted. Any kind of climbing Honeysuckle will find a happy home in the wild garden, either rambling over stumps or hedgerows, or even planted by themselves on banks.