Flowers Of The Farm, Part 2, By Arthur O. Cooke

Hi,

This is Aurora,

And I'm going to be reading part two of Flowers on the Farm by Arthur O.

Cook,

So sit back,

Relax,

And let's get you drifting off.

Besides choosing seed from the lightest or darkest blossoms,

We should tend our plants very carefully and well,

Giving them plenty of good,

Rich soil.

This would make them grow bushy and with many flowers,

As we see them in Mrs.

Hammond's garden beds.

Many of our garden flowers have been produced in this way,

By selecting and improving wild flowers.

Of course,

All flowers grow wild somewhere,

Some in England,

But many more in foreign countries,

Where the air is warmer and the soil richer and better.

The pansy is a little English wildflower with yellow,

Blue,

And red petals.

From this little flower,

Gardeners have produced large and beautiful pansies of many different colors and shades of colors,

White,

Yellow,

Blue,

And brown.

This has been done by careful selection,

Just as we spoke of doing with the wildflowers.

But if the large single-colored pansies of which I have told you,

Or Mrs.

Hammond's dark brown wallflowers were allowed to seed themselves,

That is,

Were allowed to drop and sow their own seed year after year,

Do you know what would happen?

They would gradually revert or turn back to their original form and color.

The flowers would become mixed in color and less fine in size.

At last,

They would be simple wildflowers again.

Now it is June,

And the blossoms of the wallflower have faded and fallen.

The wall is,

However,

Growing gay with another plant,

The red valerian.

We must be careful to remember that it is the red valerian,

For there are other valerians.

This is the great valerian which does not grow on walls or rocks,

But in damp and shady places.

Its flowers are pale pink.

The blossoms of the red valerian on the wall are bright crimson,

And they grow in rows on small stems,

Which spring from a stout stalk a foot or two in height.

Each blossom of five petals forms a little tube,

Or corolla.

The base or foot of each little tube appears as a point on the underside of the flower's stem.

The red valerian,

Like the violet,

Is a spurred flower.

The leaves are long and pointed,

And they grow in pairs,

On opposite sides of the stalk.

Sometimes the edges of the leaves are quite smooth.

Sometimes they are serrated or toothed,

Like the edge of a saw.

If we pulled a plant of red valerian from the wall,

We would find the roots very long and branching.

They need to be so,

For the plant often grows on rocks and other places where it is exposed to wind.

If the roots had not a firm hold,

The tall stems laden with blossoms might be blown down.

The red valerian flowers all through the summer,

Its clusters of crimson flowers,

Are as great an ornament to the old wall as were the wall flowers in May.

Now let us go down the steps into the fold yard.

There is a wall on either side of us as we descend.

The wall,

Which faces the north,

Is nearly always in shadow,

And there are ferns growing.

One of these is a beautiful heart's tongue fern.

With large and shining leaves.

We said just now,

However,

That ferns have no flowers,

So we will turn to something that grows on the wall opposite.

This is the ivy-leaved toadflax.

It grows on walls and rocks,

As the red valerian does,

But it is a very different plant in appearance.

The stems of the red valerian are tall and upright,

Those of the toadflax are slender and drooping.

There is a large mass of it on the side of the wall,

And we find that the root is at the highest point of the whole mass.

The stems with flowers and leaves hang down below the root,

It is a trailing plant.

There are,

However,

Other roots clinging to the wall here and there below the main root.

The plant,

Like several others,

Is able to throw out fresh roots from the joints of its stems and these give it a firmer hold.

The flowers are small,

And their color is a pale lilac blue with a bright yellow spot in the center.

These flowers,

Too,

Are spurred.

The leaves are smooth and thick,

What is called fleshy.

They are divided into five lobes,

Or divisions,

And are not unlike an ivy leaf in shape.

When we turn a leaf or two over,

We see that the underside of some is dark purple.

This little plant is usually said to prefer a damp situation,

And to blossom from May till October.

This wall beside the steps is certainly rather damp,

For the moisture from the garden above soaks down to it.

In my own garden,

However,

The ivy-leaved toadflax grows on some very dry old walls,

And I have found it in flower in the middle of December.

Neither the toadflax nor the red valerian are really natives.

They have spread so much that they have now become wildflowers,

In the same way many others of our wildflowers were once unknown.

Now that we have come down the steps into the fold yard,

We see that it lies a good deal below the house and garden.

Just around the fold yard are the stables for the cart horses,

The cow houses,

And the great barn.

Behind the stables is the rickyard,

That,

Like the garden,

Is above the fold yard.

From it,

There are only two or three steps to the door of the loft,

Or tallet,

Above the stables.

It is there that we will go now.

The wall of the tallet is of stone and is very old.

The roof is tiled.

There is a little hole cut in the bottom of the door,

And you will see one like in the door of the granary.

It is made so the old Tib and the other cats can go in and catch mice.

Growing between the stones of the wall,

Just by the tallet door,

Is the plant I want to show you now.

It is the stone crop.

Some of the stems grow upright,

While others are trailing.

At the top of each upright stem is a cluster of bright yellow flowers.

Some of these are fully open,

And we see that each blossom has five pointed petals.

The trailing stems have no flowers at all,

They are barren.

But the leaves on the barren stems are much more numerous and closer together than those on the upright flowering stems.

These leaves are very curious.

They are not flat like the leaves of the red valerian,

The toadflax,

And most other flowers.

They are very thick and fleshy.

Something like a short round pointed stick,

They grow close against the stalk.

First,

A leaf on one side of the stalk,

Then a leaf on the other.

They are erect too,

That is,

They point in the same direction as the stalk.

On the barren stems,

The leaves grow so closely that they quite cover the stalk.

They have a hot,

Sharp taste,

And the plant is sometimes called wall pepper.

The roots are very thin and can spread easily through narrow chinks of the wall.

We will see one more plant of the walls before we look for flowers elsewhere.

Our next plant is not very common at Willow Farm.

Still,

I know where to look for it,

But against one side of the big barn in the fold yard is a little lean-to shed.

Often there are calves in it,

But just now we are more interested in something that is on the roof.

Standing close to the wall of the shed is a cattle crib,

A kind of big square box or trough on legs,

In which hay or chaff is put for the cattle.

The shed is not very high,

And by standing on the crib,

We can scramble onto the roof.

Here is the plant we want to see.

It is the house leek,

Of which a clump is growing between the tiles.

Just flat on the tiles is a dense mass of large green fleshy leaves.

These leaves are evergreen,

They do not die and fall off in the winter.

From this cluster of leaves rise straight thick stems nearly a foot high.

The stems are thickly covered with erect leaves,

Which grow smaller toward the top of the stem.

At the top of the stem is a cluster of very handsome rosy red flowers.

Each blossom is star-shaped when fully open,

And generally has twelve petals.

If we could see the roots,

We should find them very thread-like or fibrous,

Like those of other flowers we have been looking at today.

I do not think I can very well show you the roots,

However.

We should have to pull up a plant,

And that would not please Ben,

The cowman,

At all.

There is a belief in country places that it is bad luck to disturb the house leek.

That someone in the house on which it grows is sure to die soon afterwards.

Certainly the plant is not growing on a house here,

Only on the calves' cot.

Still,

If any misfortune should happen to the calves,

We might be blamed by Ben.

Besides,

It would be a pity to disturb so handsome a plant,

Would it not?

We have spent some time in looking at these flowers on the walls and roof,

Because we think them very wonderful.

We see how little soil they have in which to grow,

And how,

In dry weather,

They can have very little moisture either.

Yet the leaves of several of them are thick and fleshy,

And the flowers of some are large and beautiful.

What could be more handsome than the blossoms of the wallflower,

The red valerian,

And the house leek?

At the end of the drive,

Near the front door,

Another white gate leads to the nag stables,

Where Mr.

Hammond keeps the two horses which he rides and drives.

Billy,

The old brown pony,

Has a little stable of his own close by.

And further on are the granary and the poultry yard.

Perhaps you have heard the saying,

Ill weeds grow apace.

It is certainly a true one,

For most of the plants which we call weeds grow quickly.

And well,

Wherever they are allowed to remain,

We shall not have far to look for the three weeds which I want to show you this morning.

The first of them is the stinging nettle.

It grows round the woodpile in the middle of the poultry yard,

And there are great clumps of it beside the hedge,

Which divides the poultry yard from the kitchen garden.

It is really a very handsome plant,

Though you may not have thought so before.

Look how tall and straight the stems are,

And how evenly and regularly the dark green pointed leaves grow from it.

They grow in pairs,

On opposite sides of the stem,

And are serrated.

There is something rather unusual about the stems of the nettle,

Which we will notice at once.

I have brought out a pair of thick leather gloves so that we can pick a stem without being stung.

You know what shape the trunks of trees are,

Round?

Yes,

Round or nearly so.

So are the stems of most plants.

The stems of the red valerian are round.

The stem of the nettle,

However,

Is square,

Or if not perfectly square,

It has four distinct sides.

Perhaps you had never noticed this before,

For the nettle is certainly not a plant with which one cares to have very much to do.

Both the stems and leaves are covered with tiny hairs.

These hairs are really small,

Hollow tubes,

Ending in a sharp point.

When the nettle stings you,

It first pricks the skin with these sharp points,

And then a drop of poison falls from the tube into the wound the point has made.

The small,

Greenish-yellow flowers of the stinging nettle grow in long,

Feathery clusters on stalks,

Which spring from the main stem close to a pair of leaves.

The young leaves of the nettles are said to be very nice boiled as vegetables.

Years ago,

Country people used to take a great deal of nettle tea as medicine in spring.

Nowadays they seem to prefer patent medicines from the chemist's shop.

A dye is made from the roots of the nettle,

And another dye from the stem and leaves.

The young leaves,

Or tops when chopped up,

Are good for poultry,

Especially for turkeys.

So nettles are useful,

You see,

Not merely stinging weeds.

The nettle too is a relation of the hemp plant,

From which we get our string and ropes.

You may sometimes see or hear of the white,

Red,

And yellow dead nettle,

But these are not really nettles at all.

Their leaves are somewhat similar,

But they are quite different plants.

Hanging over this great patch of nettles by the hedge,

There is another weed.

The traveler's joy,

Or old man's beard.

Its stem has climbed not only up the hedge,

But high into the hawthorn bush which stands there.

It has many small white feathery flowers,

With a pleasant scent.

In each leaf stem,

There are usually five leaflets,

One at the end of the stem and two pairs lower down.

These leaf stems are long and tough,

And it is chiefly by them that the plant can climb as it does.

They twine around any branch or twig they touch,

And give the traveler's joy a firm support.

I have seen trees and woods covered with this plant to a height of 20 feet from the ground.

In the autumn and early winter,

You would admire the traveler's joy as much as you do now.

The flowers will certainly be gone,

But each seed,

Which takes the place of a blossom,

Will have a little plume of silky white threads attached to it,

A sort of feathery tail.

These serve as wings by which the seeds are often carried long distances by the wind.

The seeds of some other plants,

Which we shall see,

Have something of the same kind.

There is another climbing plant in the hedge,

The large bindweed,

Or Convolvilus.

To look at it,

However,

We will go around into the garden where there is more of it than Mrs.

Hammond cares to see.

It is certainly a beautiful plant,

With its large three-sided pointed leaves,

And its great pure white bell-shaped flowers,

Something like the mouth of a trumpet.

In the farmhouse garden,

However,

It is certainly a weed,

A plant in the wrong place.

We see that at once.

Close to the hedge are some gooseberry and currant bushes,

And into these the bindweed has climbed.

The bindweed stems are twined around the stems and branches of the bushes,

Till they are almost hidden by it and are bent down by the weight.

The bindweed climbs,

As we see,

By twisting its stem round the tree to which it clings.

But though it is a climbing plant,

Its stems can grow for a foot or more from the ground without support.

Some of the shoots of the bindweed are two or three feet away from the stems of the fruit bushes,

But they have grown unsupported till they could reach an overhanging bow and cling to that.

Every now and then,

Dan,

Who looks after the garden when he has time,

Cuts all the bindweed close to the ground and pulls some of it up by the roots,

But fresh shoots soon appear again.

It is of little use to dig up the ground near the bushes,

For the bindweed is twisted all among their roots.

You think the bindweed and the traveler's joy beautiful flowers,

And so they are.

At the same time,

These plants are far more troublesome and dangerous weeds than the stinging nettle.