Flower gardens. Tis the season. Depending on where you are in the world, this can be prime time for planting flower beds.
I can’t honestly say that I’ve ever planted flowers with the intention of sharing them—an occasional bouquet for a neighbor maybe, but never with a predetermined goal. The joy that flowers bring to others hasn’t changed and it’s one of those “cozy” hobbies that a homemaker can incorporate into her routine.
The following is a magazine letter to the editor, written in 1927.
A Constant Delight
Our flower garden is a constant source of delight to everyone who sees it. I say “our” because my husband helps me with it and he enjoys it as much as I do. Its flowers are mostly old-fashioned ones as zinnias, phlox, petunias, marigolds and poppies, along with lovely dahlias, nasturtiums, sweet peas, and doll-faced petunias that smile a sweet welcome.
There are quite a few children in our neighborhood whose mothers are too busy to raise many flowers so I let them have all of ours that they want.
We take a large bouquet of flowers to church every Sunday, as long as they last, and also send flowers to the sick and old people in our town.
My mother is 81 years old and is a great lover of flowers. I take her a bouquet whenever I go to see her. Her dear face just smiles with happiness when she sees them and she always asks, “What kind do you have this time, dear?”
We do not sell flowers; we just raise them for the pleasure and happiness we and others get from them and that is a great deal.
There is a hospital in the town in which my parents live. When we go to visit them, we always take some flowers for the hospital, too.
We save the seeds and bulbs every fall for any one who wants them.
A pleasure that is shared is doubled.
-Mrs. R. S., Illinois
The following letter to the editor is one Laurie and I included in our compilation A Housewife Writes, but it fits well here, so I’m including it, too. (affiliate link)
I love the simplicity and practicality of this idea—it wasn’t difficult to coordinate and didn’t put a financial strain on any of the guests, but for the “dear old lady” it was a gift that multiplied, for years, even. (And just for the record, you could throw me a floral shower any ol' time. That’s how I party.)
A Floral Shower, 1910
She was a dear old lady and she lived alone with her flowers and birds and a big gray cat. Everyone loved her for her gentle ways and many acts of kindness. Yet when we wanted to do something for her, there seemed nothing that we could give her without hurting her pride and so bringing sorrow where we wanted to give joy. Finally the matter was settled and the result was so satisfactory that the story is worth passing along.
The minister’s wife suggested the plan, and a score of us saw at once how feasible it seemed. We would give the dear one a floral shower, not a shower of flowers exactly, but of plants and seeds and those things which she loved. In order not to duplicate too much we gathered at the parsonage a week before the date set for the shower.
When the time came, we marched in a body to the dainty little house where we knew our coming would be welcome, each bearing a tiny gift that we felt could not be deemed a charity. Not all the gifts need be enumerated but each would have proven a delight to any flower-loving heart.
A dear old lady bore in triumph a lemon tree almost as tall as the little girl whose gift of a geranium slip was just as welcomed. Some of us brought packets of flower seeds, rare ones which we had purchased for our own gardens but which we could duplicate. Some brought a slip from some favorite flower of our own in a pretty pot or jardiniere. Some came with seeds gathered last summer from flower beds or gardens and some with a plant from the florist, burdened down with its load of blossoms. The dear old lady was delighted.
-Edith W.
I’m the co-author of A Housewife Writes and author of Two Years as an Amish Schoolteacher, available on Amazon. (affiliate link) I love history and learning about the lives of our grandmothers who loved their families and managed their households. I share their stories and wisdom that are still meaningful as well as ways of keeping a modern home in the spirit of past times.
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