The Refining Influence of Flowers

If you do not have a flower garden, try planting just a few flowers or letting the children have a small flower bed this season. A bed 1 yard square, with a geranium and a few nasturtiums, for example, can give pleasure to the whole household; these flowers will bloom all season, until the frost blights them. A few flowers in pots are better than none!

It is judicious for parents to cultivate a love of flowers in their children from their earliest years, as flowers have a refining influence, and never lead astray but always upward.
–The Old Farmer’s Almanac, 1893

If you’re itchy for spring, try starting some seeds indoors. Sow indoors approximately 6 weeks before the last frost in your area.

See our listing of seed catalogs. There are many new plants this year, organic products, wildflower seeds, and more.

FREE GIFT!

Subscribe today to The 2009 Old Farmer’s Almanac and you’ll receive the 2009 pocket calendar—absolutely free! Click here.
 

Interested in planning a vegetable garden or flower garden?

If you’re new to vegetable gardening, remember this: It's better to be proud of a small garden than to be frustrated by a big one! See our advice for A Beginner’s Vegetable Garden.

Would you like to plan a flower garden that keeps the color going all summer long? Here is a new article on the Seasons of a Summer Flower Garden.

We think of butterflies as flying flowers. If you’d like to design a flower garden that lures more butterflies, you may enjoy reading Blossoms for Butterflies.

For more gardening advice, see our Gardening page.

Faithful in February

February’s flower, the violet, is a symbol of faithfulness, modesty, and simplicity. Used medicinally over the centuries, sweet violet (Viola odorata) is an expectorant, diuretic, and antiseptic. Folklore lists it among the powerful forces against evil, which is perhaps why the Greek city of Athens considered the violet its token flower.