FLOWERS FROM SNOW TO SNOW 
ON THE DAKOTA GREAT PLAINS 
FANNIE MAHOOD HEATH 
Editors’ Note: The author of this article, Mrs. Fannie Mahood Heath, 
is a pioneer of Grand Forks, North Dakota, and is joint author with Prof. 
Y. F. Yeager, Horticulturist of the North Dakota Experiment Station, of 
a bulletin (number 170) “Perennial Flowers for North Dakota Homes.’’ In 
this bulletin Mrs. Heath describes more fully the results of some forty years' experience, during which time she has transformed a bit of North Dakota prairie into 
a charming, growing wilderness of beauty. The text of the bulletin also carries reports of extensive tests carried out by the Horticultural Department of the State 
Agricultural College with collated notes of the experience of others who have gardened in the state. A list of 374 species of tested plants is given with remarks on 
hardiness, with a supplementary list of 61 perennials selected as being the most generally useful, hardy, and easily cultivated; with names arranged in order of 
blooming, beginning April 20th at Fargo (N. D.) and continuing through to September 20th. Cultural instructions are given concerning all the plants named and 
particular attention is accorded to native plants suitable for cultivation. 
It is interesting to record that this bulletin is the first publication of its kind emanating from any Agricultural Experiment Station and is expressive of the 
wide-spreading interest that flower gardening and home ground adornment is exercising in what are commonly regarded as the purely agricultural regions. 
9 NLY those who have passed through a similar expe¬ 
rience can fully understand what it really means for 
one with an intense love and longing for all that is 
beautiful in nature to leave behind him cool woods 
with shadowy depths, sparkling waterfalls that break in silvery 
cascades over mossy stones, a sparkling, gurgling trout stream 
flowing through banks fringed with dainty, woodsy treasures 
and be transferred at once to a tiny home on a trackless, treeless, 
wind-swept prairie 
covered with waving 
grass. There was no 
shade of any kind to 
break the merciless 
raysof the sun through 
The -long-summer days; 
for long indeed they 
are up here near the 
48th parallel as the sun 
rises about 4 a. m. and 
does not sink again be¬ 
low the western hori- 
zon until near 9 
o’clock P. M. 
It was mid-June 
when I first saw my 
prairie home and with 
the single exception of 
wild Roses there was 
scarcely a flower to 
break the monotonyof 
the rank prairie grass that 
grew everywhere except on 
the slight rise of ground where 
the house stood — this spot 
contained too much alkali for 
the grass to make rank 
growth. I think 1 missed the 
protection from the hot, dry¬ 
ing winds of summer, the bit¬ 
ing, stinging ones of spring 
and fall, and the merciless 
ones of winter as much as, or 
perhaps more than the beau¬ 
ty of the old scenes. 
A great determination grew 
to bring beauty and protec¬ 
tion to my treeless home. 
The accompanying picture is 
a very accurate reproduction 
of the way the surroundings 
of my prairie home looked, a 
few scattered haystacks and 
some freshly turned sod being the only breaks in the great sea of 
waving green. No attempt was made at gardening that first 
summer, aside from some tiny beds around a couple of wild 
Rose bushes and a Bindweed that were growing on the small 
piece left unplowed about the house, and the moving of a few 
plants of Liatris scariosa (earth and all) that I found some 
distance away, to a tiny bed in front of the house. 
The next spring twenty-four small Pines and Balsams from 
the moist, protected 
woods around my old 
home found their way 
to my new prairie 
home and also four lit¬ 
tle Lilac bushes. The 
evergreens were plant¬ 
ed in four rows of six 
each with a Lilac bush 
at the end of each row 
nearest the house just 
where the flower gar¬ 
den now stands. They 
were only a few inches 
high, yet how woodsy 
they did seem and how 
proud and happy we 
were of the evergreen 
forest! The alkali soil 
and hot winds made 
short work of the ever¬ 
greens, but the Lilacs 
grew right along and two of 
them are shown in the pic¬ 
ture taken thirty years later 
(see above at left), one al¬ 
most hiding the west wing 
of the house, the other, a still 
larger bush, just across the 
path. 
For years we were an easy 
prey to the few nurserymen 
who came our way, and often 
dug into our slender purse to 
buy fairly large-sized trees 
and shrubs, only to have them 
sun-scald and die, and it was 
not until we learned to plant 
small sizes that we made any 
progress. The trees near the 
house are mostly Boxelder 
and Cottonwood. Some of 
them have now reached a 
height of 75 or 80 feet and the 
A BIT OF PRAIRIE THAT HAS BECOME A GARDEN 
“ The first step toward the future garden was the ploughing of the prairie,” 
writes Mrs. Heath, “and this is exactly as our home-to-be looked when 
I saw it first. Every tree and shrub has been planted by us. The picture 
above was taken just inside the front gate about 125 ft. from the house, 
unfortunately, however, in late summer when very few of the flowers 
were in bloom.” (See page 225 for list of flowers in Mis. Heath’s garden) 
224 
