The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-02-18
EARN, 9tnr1e and 6arden.
oLD-FAsHIoNED FLOWERS.

OLD-FASHIONED FLOWERS.
This is not the time of outdoor opera
tions in the flower garden, but it is never
too early to plan for any changes or i'm
provements one may wish to see realized
as soon as the winter is over and gone.
Hence these suggestions, partly Of rem
iniscent character, from the Farm and
Fireside, are in order.
Some Of us can never forget the happy
times when buttercups and daisies made
beautiful boquets. 1t is good to cherish
recollections of our early days; and moth
ing will so much help US to do it as the
sweet faces of the flowers we used to love.
The common lilac is prettier and sweeter
than ninety nine out OF the hundred of the
more rare, shy blooming and shy grow
ing exotics; and yet, because any one
with plot of ground ten feet square may
have an abundance for the mere plant
ing, we often find beautiful and we'll Gull
tivated gardens entirely destitute Of them.
The little ragged urchin who purloins an
armful for May-day frolic, seems to be
the only one of all mankind who thor
oughly appreciates their fragrance 1 am
one Of those who love the old because it
is old-and the new better, only when /
am convinced of it's superiority. I love
to see improvements going on around me
but don't like to see man tear down
the house in which his fathers we're born
merely that he may rear modern man
sion upon it's site.
How rarely we now see the nasturtium,
with it's neat, glossy foliage, and its pro-
fusion of bright beautiful blossoms.
How many of us can remember gather
ing the fruit, when green, for picking;
and what delicious pickles they we're!
My grandmother had recipe for pick
ling them that took prize at a county
fair. No garden, large or small, should
be without sma supply OF nasturtiums.
They are really ornamental, whether
around the greenhouse pillar of the rich
man, or the porch post of the poor. A
very singular phenomenon is said to
sometimes be exhibited by this plant:
during twilight and before sunrise it has
been said to emit sparks or flashes of
light from the petals of its flowers. The
great Swedish botanist Linn@us believed
it to be electric, and that it was endowed
with that property as a defense against
injurious insects.
Carnations, sweet williams, even holly
hooks and sunhowers, we would like to see
come to the front again; it would be re-
freshing.
or all the old-time flowers, the prim-
rose seems to have held it's place in our
hearts longer than any other, though
many who cherish deep affection for
the plant are not successful in it's Guilt
walton. That is simply the result of over
stimulation. 1t looks to the mountains
for its origin, and like all mountaineers,
it's tastes are simple. Do not bother it
with rich food. 1 have known some spe-
cies Of primrose forced SO as to produce
extraordinarily large and vivid colored
flowers, but premature decay was the in
evitable result.
1t ia well that there is diversity of
tastes in gardening as we'll as in other
arts. This power of the human mind
which men call taste, is very singular
one. 1t is more capricious than any
other. 1t leads one person to admire
only the regular, the ornamental and the
splendid; while another relishes exclu-
sively the simple, the unsssuming and
the natural.