Dear Lee Valley,
I have great respect for your company, so I was dismayed
to read an article about filling fireplaces with ferns,
moss, etc. in the previous issue. (See Gardening Newsletter,
Volume 2, Issue 2, Interesting Reads section, "The
Fire-Place in Summer", excerpt from American Agriculturalist,
Vol. XXXVIII, No. 5, May 1879.)
I was mainly concerned about the suggestion that one
should dig up these wild plants from where they naturally
grow. I realize that the information was from text published
before 1900, a time when this practice was not frowned
upon as it is today. However, I would have expected
a disclaimer to follow it. As a docent at the Mt. Cuba
Center (a garden devoted to the appreciation and preservation
of native plants of the Piedmont) near Wilmington, Delaware,
I am sensitive to the need to protect the fragile balance
of these plants and their environment.
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