Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1902 — Flowers of Eastertide. [ARTICLE]

Flowers of Eastertide.

To be sure the lily is the recognized Eastertide flower —but there are others. Pretty flowers of any kind sre prettier on Easter, and then, too, fashion don’t go so much on flowers, for these are Nature's own handiwork and have a style of their own. Any of our readers who have access to the woods and groves do not have to depend upon expensive potted flowers for Easter decorations, for mosses and delicate opening fern fronds and low-growing, woody beauties afford beahtiful display wherever it is possible to obtain them. The best arrangement for displaying these flowers, as well as -the most natural and economical. Is that of using any low, shallow dish, either of glass or china, of about the size of a soup plate. If this is filled with clean, fresh moss from the woods, mada up in a slightly ronnded form in the center, flowers and ornamental sprays of leaves can be inserted in a free, natural-appearing manner, instead of having that excessively formfl appearance they usually have when packed in smnll vases or when made into bouquets. They also keep fresh for a longer period, owing to the mneh lnrger surface exposed immediately under them. The moist moss furnishes a source of vapor which tends to preserve the blossoms. The moss should be well sprinkled with water At each renewal of the flotvera. Very pleasing effects are produced by securing small rooted plants, such aa violets. which may be picked up In the woods and meadows, and inserting them a

In the damp moss, where they will continue to grow and flower for a long time. An arrangement of this kind is easily kept ever fresh by substituting a twig or fern or a flower as the others fade and are removed. Trailing plants of suitable growth may be usefully employed in this sort of decoration. The llniara eymbalaria, often called kenilworth ivy; the tradeseantia discolor, one of the many “Wandering Jews,” of our domestic nomenclature, and the lysimachial nummularia, or moneywort, are some of the plants well fitted for use in this way. As to the lily—this flower will probably never be displaced as the Easter blossom. Forcing the Easier lily to bloom just at the desired season is the result of much calculation on the part of the growers.