The sun., 1895-02-17
Spring EfSHi0NS ~ FLOUERS.
OId-time Blossoms and Wonderful Inven-
lions In Vioiets and Pansies.

! OId.timr Blossoms and wonderful Inven.
| lions In Vioiets and Pansies.
| DESPITE the billiards and the freezngs, florists
| and seetsmen are as busy as the bees soon Will
! he making their arrangements for the spring
planting Of flower gardens and setting the FASH
ion for summer blooms. The florists shops show
their usual array OF hot-house flowers pale
lilacs. spicy jonquils. and over-sweet Cape jas
mines: and there will be no break between these
products OF an artificial atmosphere and the
flowers of the spring. Out in the nurseries and
seed gardens Of Long Island. around Floral
Park down in the warm alluvial beds outside
Philadelphia, up on the lake shore by Roches-
ter. and in the loan fields OF New Jersey there
is just as much confident hustle and planning
for great change as though such thing us the
frost of 'o5 had never been heard OF.
As TO the fashion in flowers, there seems no
doubt that the public taste has gone back to
sweet smelling. simple flowers. Last summer
the sweet pea was in profusion here, but the
indications are that this summer every garden
will be half filed with great clumps Of its tough
green stalks, butterfly looking blossoms. and old
fashioned gentle perfume. which. like that of the
mienonetto. seems to fill circumference OF
odor without any central point. The many bios
somcd phoX, sweet fern. the bold climbing
clematis, the Glove, and India pinks-these, and
the roses. of course. are to be the favorite flow
ers that will make the modern garden look and
smell like an old-fashoned posy yard.
In flowers that are more remarkable for their
vivid color than for their perfume, the same
leaning toward old favorites will be seen. The
narigold. double and single and ranging IN
color from AS pale u ghost to as yellow as n
guinea; asters OF every conceivable color;
bright faced lobelas for edgugs; the larkspur
Of Shakespeare's DAYS; nasturtiums, once grown
I.,.tr far has
ness and gloss of their velvet petals and the
brilancy Of their color in every shade of yellow,
red. brown, and even black-these are few of
the coming seasons more brilliant but less odor-
Gus favortes.
Even the POPPY has been tsSen sl, in from the
scarlet cup there have been drawn scores OF
varieties. There are poppies. four-petalled and
white many detailed and black small and open
Nor will the garden be complete without its line
OF peonies by the southern wali--the .piney OF
variegated that one will scarcely recognize its
old familiar face In its new finery.
every iiower. The florist and the scotsman
conccde that the tendency to make fashionable
again that which 1t was Thought had gone out
as it is in furniture and printing and hreplaces:
but they are led by a desire for something new
crossing and other pcrversions of nature. For
instance. last season the violet and the pansy
ran aDout neck anu neck N puDic iaEoT' rs tn"S
VIII again TINS season, with the violet havlng
these two flowers to be the spring favor
ties. just as the sweet pea Is to be made tho
such vioets and pansies as ono never dreapned
Of There is To he u California violet two flowers
on a stem. stalks a foot long. blossoms bigger
than a dollar. and perfume as strong as n dozen
Russian and Marie Louise trifes rolled into one;
and pansiies & o. @ nne ana very rare rea-osick
and panses with ,yariegatcd foliage. Lastly,
there will be the ,pansy-violet or the
NE pansy with the sweet Alpine violet.
The result is flower that looks like
a pansy and smells like violet. After all.
though this Is not 80 strange as 1t at first reads,
for the pansy ls only violet in which the bril-
liancy OF the flower has ben developed at the
ton can he seen by looking at the wild yellow
pansv which bears the beginnings Of both
flowers. and the ingenious florist has oiiiy
ceeded in bringing the two wandering children
together again