Old-Time Gardens, Newly Set ForthEarle, Alice Morse
History
Old-Time Gardens, Newly Set Forth
Earle, Alice Morse
Gardens; Landscape gardening
If tradition be true, it is to Governor Endicott we owe an indelible dye
on the landscape of eastern Massachusetts in midsummer. The Dyer's-weed
or Woad-waxen (_Genista tinctoria_), which, in July, covers hundreds of
acres in Lynn, Salem, Swampscott, and Beverly with its solid growth and
brilliant yellow bloom, is said to have been brought to this country as
the packing of some of the governor's household belongings. It is far
more probable that he brought it here to raise it in his garden for
dyeing purposes, with intent to benefit the colony, as he did other
useful seeds and plants. Woadwaxen, or Broom, is a persistent thing; it
needs scythe, plough, hoe, and bitter labor to eradicate it. I cannot
call it a weed, for it has seized only poor rock-filled land, good for
naught else; and the radiant beauty of the Salem landscape for many
weeks makes us forgive its persistence, and thank Endicott for bringing
it here.
"The Broom,
Full-flowered and visible on every steep,
Along the copses runs in veins of gold."
The Broom flower is the emblem of mid-summer, the hottest yellow flower
I know--it seems to throw out heat. I recall the first time I saw it
growing; I was told that it was "Salem Wood-wax." I had heard of
"Roxbury Waxwork," the Bitter-sweet, but this was a new name, as it was
a new tint of yellow, and soon I had its history, for I find Salem
people rather proud both of the flower and its story.
Oxeye Daisies (Whiteweed) are also by vague tradition the children of
Governor Endicott's planting. I think it far more probable that they
were planted and cherished by the wives of the colonists, when their
beloved English Daisies were found unsuited to New England's climate and
soil. We note the Woad-waxen and Whiteweed as crowding usurpers, not
only because they are persistent, but because their great expanses of
striking bloom will not let us forget them. Many other English plants
are just as determined intruders, but their modest dress permits them to
slip in comparatively unobserved.
It has ever been characteristic of the British colonist to carry with
him to any new home the flowers of old England and Scotland, and
characteristic of these British flowers to monopolize the earth.
Sweetbrier is called "the missionary-plant," by the Maoris in New
Zealand, and is there regarded as a tiresome weed, spreading and
holding the ground. Some homesick missionary or his more homesick wife
bore it there; and her love of the home plant impressed even the savage
native. We all know the story of the Scotch settlers who carried their
beloved Thistles to Tasmania "to make it seem like home," and how they
lived to regret it. Vancouver's Island is completely overrun with Broom
and wild Roses from England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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