Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-06-24
A FIOWer-Bed.

AS SOON as the deeper summer comes,
those Of us who have no flowers to dec
crate our rooms, unless we can resort to
the expensive greenhouse, will regret
these early June days, when we might
have laid in goOdly store of floral har-
vest by two or three mornings work on
small garden plot, and the expenditure
Of perhaps dollar in raw material. A
little digging and leveling with light
spade and hoe, little enriching of the
soil, a little scattering of seed, little
wedding in the early morning or the cool
Of the day, and presently there would
ave been a patch of blossoms to glad
en- the eye of every passer-by, and from
which we could always have stolen
enough to fill our vases without de-
spelling their constantly -accumulating
beauty.
A parlor without a blossom in it in the
summertime is apt to have a deserted
aspect, want of life and cheer. For
wherever flowers are seen in one there is
always as much sense of cOmpanionship
as if the little flower people themselves
came visibly with the flowers to inhabit
the house.
And perhaps In way they do. For
certainly the delicate spirits of grace, of
gentleness, of taste and beauty, are
everywhere indicated where a vine
adorns d bracket, where dish of flowers
fills table, where rose blooms in a
vase, with a mirror repeating and rein
ing it in fresh loneliness. We knew when
we see these attempts at simple decora-
ton, be they ever so slight, that there is
then some one in the house to whom
color and contour and fragrance appeal,
some one who loves nature as much as
upholstery, some one who makes an
effort after the ideal, the love of flowers
seeming SO often to accompany the finer
traits, the sweetness and quiet and pleas
ant habits that make home as happy as
the flowers make it beautiful.
That they do make home beautiful no
one will dispute, and the choice between
room furnished in the simplest straw
and chintz, with plenty of fresh flowers
and vines about 1t, and room gorgeous
with gilt and velvet and without bios
som, is, for most of us, something like
the choice between house of life and
light and one of lonely dreariness.
Nor is it merely the ornamentation of
the interior of the house that these early
June days can prepare. There is not the
tiniest strip OF grass between door and
the street that is not the more attractive
that does not make the door the more in
viting, if it holds small round of bios
soming growth, or merely rusul vase
running over with color; while to a great
smooth lawn, with its velvet verdure, the
brilliant, varicolored clusters here and
there add as much charm as blush ADDS
to cheek.
It is not of the stately garden that we
speak, for that, of course, requires both
time and money, to say nothing of labor
or constant attention. But these little
clumps of flowers to which we refer car
scarcely be spoken of as requiring either
of these precious commodities to any Sc.
rious extent. Once started, they may be
said almost to take care Of themselves
They need but the slight forethought tC
prepare them, the timely remembrance
that the seed, seasonably set In the hos
pitable earth and protected from jealous
weeds only till its own strength is suf-
ficient 10 maintain it, will scarcely ask
more than the aid Of sun and rain, of