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Current Issue of The Fringed Gentian™
Spring 2021
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A tale from the Garden
Eloise Butler gets stranded in Wisconsin, hitch-hikes on a rail handcar, begs for funds. Article.
Minnesota Dwarf Troutlily
How the plant got into the Wildflower Garden.
Read Article Here.
Garden Plant of the Week
Selected from the many species in, or historical to, the Garden.
Can you identify this spring flowering plant?
LEARN ABOUT IT ON THIS PAGE
Link on name goes to more information and photos of this plant.
A selection of plants in bloom
Here is a look at some of the plants that were in bloom on April 16 in the Garden.
Photo page with text and notes
A Seasonal Poem
Yet you are
More sweet than any.
You're the maiden posies,
And so grac'd
To be plac'd
'Fore damask roses.
Yet, though thus respected,
By-and-by
Ye do lie,
Poor girls, neglected.
Taken from To Violets by
ROBERT HERRICK, (1591-1674)
Reflections
“The violets are pre-eminently the flowers of May, and is it not true that of all flowers they are the most beloved, not excepting the rose? At least nine sorts of violets can be readily distinguished by the novice in the vicinity of Minneapolis. Violets may be classed under two heads - the leafless and the leaf-stemmed. The leafless species have only a subterranean stem, while the other class have also a stem above ground. One is rapturously happy when he chances upon a meadow tufted with clumps of these violets. No wonder at such a time one supposedly guiltless of “dropping into poetry” was heard crooning over and over to himself, “I would rather know where violets grow than a good many other things!”
Eloise Butler, May 1911
Garden theme items for sale
Downloadable PDF format books.
1907-1933. Companion book to The Wild Gardener
Martha Crone and the Wild Flower Garden
1933-1958. Companion book to the Crone History
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