Among our wild plants, we will find a good number, which is very good for planting our shrub gardens.
Among the trees, oaks and lime trees are already popular for greenery. But birches are also beautiful trees, e.g. one on each side of an entrance gate or in front of a gazebo. With their white bark and slender twigs, and in autumn they also stand out nicely among spruces and other dark-leaved trees with their pale yellow leaves.
Apples have rounded leaves and red leaves in autumn, which are a wonderful match for the red berries of the rowan. The glossy dark-leaved alders and pale ash trees are suitable for wetter sites. The water's edge will be home to many species of willow and willow, with or without poplars, with glossy green or silvery leaves. Willows are very suitable for planting around the edges of pastures and paddocks, but also for shelter for livestock from the sultry sun. Another shrub suitable for the water's edge is the beautiful willow. A solitary tree, as if withdrawn into itself, dreaming of the southern sun in our flora is the elm. In drier, lime-rich soils, the saddlebush grows, which in autumn is glorious with its distinctive red fruit. Sun-loving shrubs are also our partridge berries (Viburnum vulgare) with their white flower crests and red berries, our ditch currants, wild roses, etc. It is nice to be able to plant all our pergolas with hazel.
Among the rarer shrubs are Lonicera (Lonicera with yellow flowers and blue berries) in honeysuckle forests, alder (Daphne mezereum), about 1 m tall, poisonous but very beautiful tree, found in moist forests, blooms in late winter with red fragrant flowers, berries bright red. Beaver's willow (Solanum Dulcamare) is not particularly rare, at least in the southern part of the country, but care must be taken when transplanting it into the garden as it is poisonous. The Pundur birch, the Lapland willow, which are less common in bogs, are interesting as remnants of the post-ice age in our country.
Our conifers grow into a stately, stout pyramid when planted in the right soil, in a free, sunny spot. Our pine is not very beautiful when young, but when old, its slender trunk resembles a warm-earth palm. It is a tree that is inseparable from our seaside dunes. The larch develops its distinctive beauty only as a free-standing tree. Junipers (Juniperus) grow as flame poles. In the Jurmala area, the yew (Taxus baccata) can still be found. It should be noted that it tends to disappear from the wild everywhere in central Europe. It is the only conifer that tolerates shade.
We can use our common hops from the riversides and ivy (Hedera helix) from the forests of Rucava as vine plants. Among our natural perennials, we will also find many that are perfectly suitable for transplanting into our shrub garden. If we plant them carefully, with the whole root ball, in a suitable place and maintain them properly so that the strongest weeds do not kill them, they will develop even more vigorously and flower more abundantly than when growing in the wild.
There are three basic rules we must always keep in mind when gardening.
First of all, we must respect the soil requirements of our plant life: do not forget that a garden is a work of art .There is no point in artificially doing what nature does.
The beauty of nature must also be enhanced, more vividly described than it is in nature, without, however, overstepping the boundaries imposed by the laws of nature.
And thirdly, the arrangement of the plants must correspond to our sense of harmonies and rhythms.
If there is a valley in our garden, we can deepen it further and create a pond at a lower level. In the deeper parts of the pond (50-60 cm) we will grow white and yellow water roses, floating, white-flowered, dwarf Rununculus trichophyllu m and other aquatic plants that we like. In the shallower part, about 10 cm deep, there will be room for a Sagittaria with dart-shaped leaves, a Sparganium (calli with green chestnut-like fruit) and a Butomus umbelatus (with large lilac flower trusses), all three of which are not very rare in the bays of the Lielupe's tributaries. They do not fall over when growing in the mountains, so we plant them in a more prominent position. On the wet banks of the pond we will plant some more of our yellow marsh swordwort (Iris pseudacorus).
Common purple coneflowers are not rare flowers, but with their glossy leaves and bright flowers, they will make an impression when growing in a large group. Other plants that are useful in the company of this plant are forget-me-nots, marsh violets, large yellow-flowered buttercups (Trollius europaeus), white cardamoms (Cardamim pratense), some seedlings of Spiraea ulmaria with white-yellowish, pleasant-smelling flower pitchers. A beautiful, white, strongly scented evening primrose and many other plants. On the higher banks of the pond, among some shrubs, we can find pink-flowered valerian (Valeriana officinalis) in larger clumps, blue-flowered (cream-white is rarer) Thalietrum aquillegifolium with beautiful acanthus-shaped leaves, yellow-flowered Lysimachia species with stalked leaves, red-flowered Lytrum saliceria, all common plants, will have strong effects if planted in a wild area.
Behind the path, in a sunny clearing, a place for our most beautiful sun-loving meadow, ditch and woodland plants: yellow prim u l a (Primula officinalis) flowering in spring, various species of clockwort, pansies, meadow peas, etc. A very dry gravelly mound will be the place for our proud sunflowers (Verboscum), yellow (Helichrysum) and white (Antennaria) cat's-feet, small, thick-leaved, bright yellow S e d u m a c re (fever grass), country timean (Thimus serpillus), etc.
Shady areas under deciduous trees will be planted with Convallaria majalis, ferns, Asarum europaeum, Anemone nemorosa and A. Hepatica, Latyrus vernus, Hedera helix, etc.
At the edge of the greenery, under the branches of the shrubs : fragrant violets (Viola odorata) These will be easier to grow from seed than to collect seedlings, then the "Stars of Bethlehem"
(Ornitogalum umbellatum) a small plant of the lily genus with white flowers, green on the outside, which only open around lunchtime, etc. Know your native land ! But let us also know the beauty of her plants. Who cares to track down and grow in their garden the most attractive representatives of our flora. I would like to say to all those who try to grow our rare plants in their own gardens: collect the seeds or shoots from your plants and sow them or display them again in the open air in a suitable place, because our task is not to plunder our natural treasures, but to protect and enhance them.
