2025, Art, books, Family, Kids, Nature, Poems, Uncategorized

Flower Fairies

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I got a text from our daughter the other day asking if we still had the Flower Fairy books. I told her we had taken them with all the children’s books to our grandson in Brookings. I also told her I would order her another set, and did so.

I don’t know how many Baboons are familiar with these lovely books by British author and artist Cicely Mary Barker, but they have been family favorites since our son was born. Barker wrote and illustrated the books from 1923 to 1948. There about eight of them that feature seasonal flowers and flowers in different settings. The flower illustrations are quite accurate, and each flower is set with a fairy figure whose clothing corresponds to the flower in the illustration, along with a short poem. Barker used children from her sister’s Kindergarten as models for the fairies. Most of the poems were written by her sister.

We found these poems and illustrations wonderful for bedtime reading, as well as a great way to teach our children the names of flowers. We still recite “Scilla, scilla, tell me true, why are you so very blue?” when they pop up under the bay window in the spring.

What were your favorite childhood stories and poems? How did you learn about flowers and plants?

25 thoughts on “Flower Fairies”

    1. That’s really quite extraordinary, Wes. You must have posted it before, because I remember it, and I can’t think of anyone else I know who would have introduced me to it. Thanks.

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  3. My childhood favorite was Robert Louis Stevenson’s “A Child’s Garden of Verses.”

    I spent a lot of time outdoors as a child, and my love of being outdoors is still alive and well. I love hiking in all kinds of places. My former partner and I used to hike often, and he knew all kinds of native flora. I learned from him, then I became a Preserve Monitor for three Nature Conservancy Preserves near Faribault. These were home to the rare dwarf trout lily, which will begin making their appearance soon along with other spring ephemerals. I know that pasque flowers and hepatica have both been seen already this season. I’m going to go find some later today.

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  4. Renee – I would get those Flower Fairy books at the library when Joel was little – loved them. I just looked – our library has some related books by Cicely Barker (dates say early 2000s), but I don’t see the originals even in the SELCO system. 

    We had mostly little golden books when I was growing up, and my sister and I played “library” with them – my dad brought home (from school) some of the pockets, and with recipe cards… I still have a couple of them – one is Santa’s Toy Shop.

    I do remember a book of poems called Sing a Song of Manners – haven’t located online, tho’.

    I learned the most about flowers from a Mpls friend who introduced me to Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden circa 1977; she showed me the spring ephemerals, then later the prairie garden… I have a bloodroot out back by the garage, haven’t seen it yet, and hope I haven’t missed it…

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    1. We have patches of sanguinaria here and there around our backyard gardens. If it’s up at all, it’s just emerging. You haven’t missed it.

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  5. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I do not remember Flower Fairies, but it sounds wonderful. We went to the library a lot when I was little. I loved the book, A Hundred Dresses. I had a terrible time learning to read. I had become really nearsighted and no one noticed. The family was undergoing a lot of changes at that time which was hard emotionally. When those changed were combined with poor eyesight, I was struggling. My mother got a set of books to help. I remember the book Mabel the Whale. Poor Mabel got a sunburn. So the people that found her wrapped her in salve and rags until she healed and they let her go. I loved that book. There were 3 others, as well.

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  7. I had a lot more fun with kids books when I had a child… Discovered Winnie the Pooh, Beatrix Potter ‘s offerings, old chestnuts like Blueberries for Sal (McCloskey), Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel(Virginia Lee Burton), Edna Miller’s Mouskin…

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  8. Illustrated Treasury of Children’s Literature – I think I’ve mentioned this before… I had a not quite entire raggedy old copy for decades but several years ago, found an intact copy online. My mom read me all those stories. I loved the poetry. We also had the Golden books that you got at the grocery store every week if you spent enough. Pokey Little Puppy is my favorite!

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  10. There was a Golden Book-sized book that was possibly my first book, read to me as a toddler. I didn’t remember the title but I knew that two of the dogs in the story were named Toothy Perkins and No-Tail Ryan. That was enough to Google and find it—The Puppy Who Chased the Sun.

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  11. Here is one of Barker’s poems, The Song of the Burdock Fairy

    Wee little hooks on each brown burr
    (Mind where you’re going, oh Madam and Sir!)
    How they will cling to your skirt-hem and stocking!
    Hear how the burdock is laughing and mocking:
    Try to get rid of me, try as you will,
    Shake me and scold me, I’ll stick to you still,
    I’ll stick to you still!

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