Old-Fashioned Flowers 



FIRST PAPER 



MOST of us, no matter how great a 

 reputation we have for practical- 

 ity, have a liking for old things. 

 We lind more pleasure in the attic where 

 things of the past are hidden away than 

 in the parlor, v/here everything is new 

 and "up to date." I do not know who 

 wrote the little poem in which these lines 

 occur : 



"There are no friends like the old friends, 

 The friends of long ago,^' 



but the author of it was in touch with 

 those for whom he wrote, and voiced a 

 sentiment universal to all sorts and con- 

 ditions of men. And what we feel about 

 old friends is quite like the feeling many 

 3f us have about old flowers — the "old- 

 fashioned flowTrs" that our grandmothers 

 ^rew, and loved more, I think, than we 

 Love the flowers of today. Indeed, I hardly 

 think we really love the modern flowers — 

 [he "great acquisition," "the wonderful 

 lovelty" concerning which the florists dis- 

 30urse so glibly in their annual catalogues 

 — we simply admire them because of their 

 peculiarities of color, of form, and size. 

 We do not get to be on friendly terms with 

 :hem, as we do with the old ones. In fact, 

 :hey never seem to appeal to the sentiment 

 )f friendship. That is too old-fashioned a 

 sentiment for them, depending, as they do, 

 m the whims and caprices of the public 

 "or their brief popularity. They are here 

 ;oday and gone tomorrow. A bunch of 

 •agged Clove Pinks, Quakerlike in garb, 

 )ut overflowing with the fragrance of sum- 

 ner, will give vastly more pleasure to those 

 vho'love flowers for their own sweet sakes 

 ;han they can find in a score of the great 

 S^oses sold on our streets today. There 

 ised to be a Eose in cultivation known as 

 ;he "Cabbage" Rose. This name might be 

 ippropriately used in connectioil with the 

 )vergrown roses of the present time. There 

 s a limit to all things, they tell us, but it 

 seems that the limit of size has not yet 



been found by the modern Rose. . It has 

 become a floral monstrosity, and beauty 

 has been sacrificed to the ambition of the 

 florists to outdo each other in producing 

 an enormous flower. 



About the old gardens which we find 

 here and there still there is a subtle and 

 powerful charm that can not be put into 

 words. In them one loses the spirit of 

 hurry and restlessness which characterizes 

 most of us at the present day. We forget 

 all about ourselves in them, and seem to 

 have turned backward on the road of life 

 and come to a halting place that is like a 

 quiet wayside inn, away from the rush 

 and worry of the busy world. Every bush^ 

 every flower in them has about it the ma- 

 terial from which to weave webs of fanci- 

 ful conceits. They are places to dream in. 



When the writer of this article was a 

 boy nearly all gardens of which he has any 

 recollection had three kinds of Roses grow- 

 ing in them. One was known as the 

 Damask Rose. This was a flower of fair 

 size, quite double, and of exquisite form, 

 with petals of pearly pink, and a fragrance 

 sweeter, it seems to me, as I remember it, 

 than any other Rose has ever known. La 

 France may be as sweet in its way, but 

 its fragrance is wholly unlike that of the 

 old-fashioned Rose of which I write. It 

 is lacking in that outdoor quality, if I 

 may so express it, which characterizes the 

 Roses of the garden. One Rose was a red 

 one, quite large, but not very double, and 

 somewhat lacking in fragrance, but every 

 garden had it because of its wonderful 

 profusion of flowers, which had a beauty 

 peculiarly their own from their habit of 

 opening their wide, loose petals in such 

 a manner as to show a wealth of golden 

 stamens which contrasted charmingly with 

 the color of the flower, which was at first 

 a vivid carmine, fading rapidly to a softer 

 tone, which, for all I know to the con- 

 trary, may have suggested the term of 

 ashes of Roses to some poetically inclined 

 person, for at the last the flower had little 



