People : Praise : About : Book : Activities : Columns A Family Flower Garden A garden is a wonderful family project and an evolving metaphor for life, growth, and change. Create a garden with your child. Your "garden" can be a window box, a few large pots on the stoop, or a row of plants on a sunny windowsill. Start small and keep it simple. To ensure success, follow the basics of soil preparation, location and plant selection and care. If you don't have a green thumb, talk to people at the local garden center. They can give you lots of advice. Flowers are either annuals (which last only one growing season and can be grown from seeds or purchased as small plants), perennials (which come back year after year and are usually purchased as small plants), and bulbs (most of which are planted in the fall for spring-to-summer bloom). The growing cycle for each type teaches its own lesson: annuals exemplify the spirit or carpe diem; perennials, perseverance and change; bulbs, the rewards of patience (and in some cases, perseverance, since some return each year). If you can, select flowers from each group. You can choose plants for their appearance, their ease of care, or simply because they're your and your child's favorites. You can also plant with a purpose (flowers for cutting, flowers to attract butterflies, flowers for their scent) or meaning. The Victorians elevated this to a fine art, even attributing specific meaning to different colors of the same flower. In the "language of flowers," roses and lilacs say "love": violets, "faithfulness": gladiolus, "strength"; and zinnias, "thoughts of absent friends." In their names alone, common flowers like forget-me-nots, sunflowers, butterfly weed, and money plant conjure up wonderful images. Visit a local public garden or garden center. Ordering from catalogs (which are full of information) is also fun. From catalogs, you can find some unusual plants, such as pink daffodils, black tulips, and white sunflowers. Easy to grow annuals: alyssum, wax begonia, coleus, impatiens, sunflower, petunia, marigold, zinnia, four-o'clock, ageratum, calendula, moonflower, fuchsia, cleome, cosmos, morning glory, coreopsis, lantana, lobelia, nasturtium, annual geranium (pelargonium), salvia, dusty miller, torenia, garden verbena. East to grow perennials: butterfly weed, money plant (honesty), pansy, yarrow, Chinese lantern plant, aster, astible, daylily, campanula (bellflower), iris, hosta, dianthus (pinks), carnation, bleeding heart, perennial geranium, baby's breath, coralbells, lavender, monarda, peony, rudbekia, lamb's ears, veronica, violet. Easy to grow bulbs: daffodil, narcissus, crocus, tulip, hyacinth, scilla, fritillaria, allium (some varieties of fritillaria and allium grow over three feet tall), and Asiatic, Chinese and Oriental lilies. Flowers that attract butterflies: alyssum, marigold, four-o'clock, nasturtium, lantana, monarda, butterfly weed, coreopsis, daylily. Flowers that attract hummingbirds: fuschia, nasturtium, salvia, monarda, daylily, coralbells, petunia, lily. Flowers for bouquets: almost all large bulbs, especially tulip and daffodil, Oriental and Asian lilies (not daylilies), bearded and Dutch iris, monarda, zinnia, sunflower, marigold, carnation, rudbeckia, peony. In addition to planting and caring for the garden, keep a journal together noting what you planted where and when. Photograph the garden from year to year, make up special bouquets from it, dry flowers for potpourri, or press them to commemorate a special day. PURPOSE: Creating life and tending to growth are wonderful experiences for children and their parents as well as a metaphor for our personal lives. Gardening is a bonding experience that children enjoy. Further, discussing a flower's needs helps a child express his own needs.