CHAPTER XXI 

 HINTS ON FLOWER GARDENS* 



WE are once more unlocked from the chilling embraces 

 of the Ice-King! APRIL, full of soft airs, balm- 

 dropping showers, and fitful gleams of sunshine, 

 brings life and animation to the millions of embryo leaves 

 and blossoms, that, quietly folded up in the bud, have slept 

 the mesmeric sleep of a northern winter - - April, that first 

 gives us of the northern states our proper spring flowers, 

 which seem to succeed almost by magic to the barrenness of 

 the month gone by. A few pale snowdrops, sun-bright 

 crocuses, and timidly blushing mezereums, have already 

 gladdened us, like the few faint bars of golden and ruddy 

 light that usher in the full radiance of sunrise; but April 

 scatters in her train as she goes out, the first richness and 

 beauty that really belong to a temperate spring. Hyacinths, 

 and daffodils, and violets, bespread her lap and fill the air 

 with fragrance, and the husbandman beholds with joy his 

 orchards gay with the thousand blossoms - - beautiful har- 

 bingers of luscious and abundant crops. 



All this resurrection of sweetness and beauty, inspires us 

 with a desire to look into the flower garden, and to say a 

 few words about it and the flowers themselves. We trust 

 there are none of "our parish," who, though they may not 

 make flower gardens, can turn away with impatient or 

 unsympathizing hearts from flowers themselves. If there 

 are such, we must, at the very threshold of the matter, 

 borrow a homily for them from that pure and eloquent 

 preacher, Mary Howitt: 



"God might have made the earth bring forth 



Enough for great and small, 

 The oak tree and the cedar tree, 

 Without a flower at all. 



* Original date of April, 1847. 



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