Celebrate Spring: 6 Books about Flower Gardening

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In honor of National Garden Week, I thought I’d share some of our children’s favorite picture books about flower gardening. Check them out!

Flower Garden

I first heard Flower Garden when our children’s librarian read it aloud during story time at the local library. It follows a father and daughter from start to finish as they work on a special surprise for somebody they both love.

The illustrations are filled with color and warmth. Our family enjoyed the book so much we have since added a copy to our personal library.

Painting a Rainbow

Lois Ehlert’s brightly illustrated picture book, Planting a Rainbow, makes a great primer for beginning gardeners.

Young children may have an easier time identifying flowers by color than by shape or size, and this book sorts several of the most popular varieties in rainbow order.

The Empty Pot

A young boy with a talent for growing things is given a special seed by the emperor. He is commanded to tend it well and to present the results in court the following spring. But despite his best efforts, he cannot get the seed to sprout and has nothing to show for all his work.

Demi’s classic folktale, The Empty Pot, is another title we checked out from our local library. My children loved it and insisted I read it again and again, until we finally bought a copy for our own collection.

The Tiny Seed

Some of the most stunning displays of spring blossoms are not planted by human hands at all. Have you ever noticed that? Fields full of wildflowers and roadsides dense with color?

We got our copy of Eric Carle’s The Tiny Seed free through PaperBack Swap. Using simple illustrations and easy to follow text, the author explains how flowers are propagated naturally, their seeds carried by the wind to a final resting place, watered by the rain and nourished by sunshine, until they break forth in bloom in unexpected places.

The Gardener

The Gardener is another story our children’s librarian introduced us to during weekly story time about a year ago. Set during The Depression era, it follows a young girl to the big city where she takes a job in a shop owned by her uncle. She brought little with her, save a plucky spirit, a ready smile, a strong work ethic, some stationery for writing home, and a suitcase full of seeds. Using all those resources, she makes it her goal to brighten the lives and lighten the load of everyone she meets, including her careworn uncle.

The Reason for a Flower

When spring arrives with all it’s beautiful blooms, you might be tempted to think flowers exist solely to bring pleasure to those who admire and cultivate them, but as Ruth Heller explains in The Reason for a Flower, that isn’t their primary purpose.

In her signature, inimitable style, the author uses beautifully detailed illustrations and simple rhyming verse to teach complex lessons and concepts to even the youngest of her readers in a way they can easily understand. Heller is a master at this, and our family owns several of her books for that very reason.

So those are a few of the titles I’ve been reading to our little ones this spring. We’ve already made a one run to the local nursery for flowers to put in our front beds, and made another trip yesterday for veggies to go in the back.

What books are you reading this spring? Are you planting something, as well? What?

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Elsie Bouwman says

April 14, 2015 at 9:56 am

“And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great mutitude was gathered to Him, so that He ogt into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the ses. Then he taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching:

“Listen! Behold, a sower wnent out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it.

Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.

And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced : some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some hundred.”

And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that ‘Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not undertand; lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them. And He said to them “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you undrestand all the parables?

THE SOWER SOWS THE WORD.

And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.

These likewise are the ones sown on stony gorund who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time.Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.

Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” Mark 4: 1-20

I am a sower that sows the word; and believe that the sowers that sow the word are increasing and multiplying all over the earth!!

Comments

Elsie Bouwman says
April 14, 2015 at 9:56 am
“And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great mutitude was gathered to Him, so that He ogt into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the ses. Then he taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching:
“Listen! Behold, a sower wnent out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it.
Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.
And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced : some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some hundred.”
And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that ‘Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not undertand; lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them. And He said to them “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you undrestand all the parables?
THE SOWER SOWS THE WORD.
And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.
These likewise are the ones sown on stony gorund who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time.Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.
Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” Mark 4: 1-20
I am a sower that sows the word; and believe that the sowers that sow the word are increasing and multiplying all over the earth!!
- Jennifer Flanders says
  April 14, 2015 at 11:40 am
  There are lots of great analogies to be found in the world of gardening, aren’t there, Elsie? I was reminded of that this morning while weeding one of my flowerbeds. It’s so much easier to pull those weeds when they are little — something parents would do well to remember when trying to shape habits and character traits in children.