By Rick Houser-

From the first days that it is warm enough until the autumn frost, our world is decorated with the brilliant colors of flowers that abound in our world. It is probably just me but these days it seems like there are less and less flowers to be seen as you drive through the countryside. There is just no denying that our world has changed and so much of it has been for the good. Unfortunately, there have been some changes that have to happen to allow these other changes to occur.
When I was a boy in the 50’s and a teenager in the 60’s, I can still recall some of those losses. One such loss in my opinion is that the farm homes and almost every home in the villages had flowers that caused them to stand out when you passed by. The yards were always trimmed and the buildings painted of course, but more than that was all of the color that drew your attention to those places in a different time and place where it seemed to me that the housewife was in charge of the ornamental horticulture a place might have.
I know this was true around the places where I went. The ladies in that time rarely worked away from home, so I have always thought that they took the time and created an attractive display. I am here to tell you now that they most certainty di stand out.
The perfect example was my Grandma Houser. She had a natural green thumb and even though she came across as a modest lady I have to think she wanted to impress anyone who got to see her flower beds. When I was a very young lad she lived on our other farm only a mile and a half away. This allowed us to visit her as often as possible. She enjoyed spoiling me and with that said, I of course had to allow her to do so. It cheered her up to make a fuss about me.
As a boy it has been rumored that I was a bit rambunctious and had a lot of energy that seemed difficult to harness. My Grandma was quick to understand this and since she did she would make sure that right before I was to leave for home she would take me out to one of her flower beds and she would guide me through putting together a bouquet for me to take home to my Mom. I didn’t understand it then but Grandma knew that a mother cannot help but soften up when handed a pretty bouquet of flowers. From all accounts I have been told that I needed every flower petal to help my cause. I don’t recall being that much of a problem but whatever the reason, the flowers had to help.
From those early years I have always noticed the flowers in the yards and even more so when there aren’t any. Over the years my wife and I have learned that perennials are a better way to establish color in your yard. These days we do have some annuals but look around our yard and you will find Iris and Peonies along with a Red Bud tree or two and forsythia blooming early to lead the parade. One flower that was hard to get Grandma to give up were her roses. She was awesome at growing such huge blooms with deep colors that seemed to last longer than you ever thought they would.
I used my Grandma as the example for that time period but rare was it that any woman worth her salt couldn’t and didn’t raise flowers that got your attention. It was a great time to be around to see just all of the great looking flower beds. I have spoken to others who were young at that time and they too were helped out on the home front with a bouquet of flowers. I seem to recall picking “bachelor buttons” as they were my favorite and Grandma had a huge bed of them so she could spare me as many as I needed.
Moving forward in time to when I had children we used a slightly different approach, When my daughter Meghan was old enough to like flowers we began in the spring by picking her Mom daffodils as there was a row along our fence line. Once picked she would run them to her Mom and get fussed over for being so thoughtful. As the season moved on and we didn’t have those huge flower gardens we did something different. We lived in a house at the entrance to a seldom driven township road, so in the cool of the evening we would take what I called “nature walks” and as we strolled along the road we would pick what was surprisingly a large variety of wild flowers. As the sun would set on us we would walk in the house and Meghan would deliver her gift to her mother.
It wasn’t long until her little brother Brendan wanted to go along on those “nature walks “also, so it became a little harder to find at least two of each flower as I couldn’t slight one kid you know. Little children have big eyes and super good memories and I didn’t want any complaints returning to the house as it might spoil their surprise. (I was always thinking of the children don’t you know?) Now when we arrived home my wife got two bouquets. Sometimes we would go two or three nights in a row and the bouquets would build up and our house had a lot of vases holding wildflowers. Even though she was smothering in the bouquets she never let on that she didn’t love them.
I feel confident in saying the days of the huge flower gardens are for the most part gone- a sacrifice to today’s extremely busy life. There just isn’t the time to dedicate the necessary hours. I still enjoy seeing flowers in bloom and will stop a moment to look at them but that’s about it. I have seen my daughter get her nephews to walk in the yard and pick a few wild flowers to give to their Mimi.
I too have adapted to the way things are now, to a point. These days when I feel it would be a smart thing to give my wife a bouquet I stop at the grocery store and buy a bouquet of a variety of flowers that look something like those from the days past and deliver them, hoping that this rambunctious boy might be given a pass out of being in trouble- again.