Children and Their Flowers 4^ 
I N this chapter I will endeavour to tell how our children 
came to be interested in flowers, and how, in connection 
with their gardening, we have had special opportunities 
to teach them many useful and interesting things. 
And what an important item would be added to juvenile 
education if flower culture, no matter on how limited a scale, 
formed a special subject, and the love of Nature were by 
this means awakened in the mind of the child. 
Children and flowers ! Does it not seem that they are 
inseparably connected ? Both are such great sources of 
joy. Both stand to us as symbols of innocence and hope. 
Flowers Grow for Those 
Who Love Them. 
Children and flowers have equally great need of sun- 
shine and love. The cheeks of our little ones grow pale 
during the sunless days of the long dark winter in Sweden, 
or if they are deprived for a little of fresh air ; and flowers 
cannot exist at all without 
sun. Sun is their life-elixir; 
without it they wither away. 
It is clear that children 
must have loving care ; and 
there are many who hold 
that flowers thrive best when 
tended by loving hands. 
Personally, I, too, believe 
this theory, judging by my 
own experience in gardening. 
Many a time have I 
found strong and beautiful 
'fV 
