Join Tino and friends on their visit to the garden centre and then try our fun activity sheet!
The colours were incredible: white, purples, yellows, oranges, reds and every shade of pink you could imagine. And the greens! Dark green, lime green, grey green, yellow green. The shades of green were so soothing and calming, they made Tino feel relaxed and cheerful. He put his paw out and gently touched them as he walked past: some were sharp and nearly cut him, others were smooth, leathery, and some were furry like him! He avoided those that looked spiky – he didn’t want Bill having to use tweezers to remove spines from his fur!
‘What about this one?’ Tilly asked Bill, pointing to a plant pot in the shape of a dog, with a vibrant post-box red geranium flower proudly peering out.
‘Hmmm,’ replied Bill. ‘Not quite what I’m looking for. Let’s keep going.’
The bears were enjoying their first visit to the garden centre, although they hadn’t been very enthusiastic when Bill had pulled into the car park.
‘I thought we were going swimming,’ Rupert had complained sulkily as the bears piled out of the car. However he soon cheered up when they had entered what seemed to the bears like an amazing green jungle – Rupert had always wanted to be an explorer!
‘Ah-ha, perfect!’ the bears heard Bill exclaim happily. Thinking he had found the perfect colourful flowers in a striking pot to brighten their garden, the bears joined him. Oddly, Bill had picked up a packet of what looked like small dry onions. They were very disappointed.
‘Those little crinkly things won’t make us smile when we look at them,’ remarked Roberta. ‘What about these lovely pink and purple petunias in a hanging basket instead?’
‘Oh no,’ said Bill. ‘They won’t do at all.’
Back at home the bears puzzled over why Bill had chosen something so dull and ugly when they could have had ready-made instant happiness in a pot. Bill only smiled mysteriously.
‘Wait and see,’ was all he would say.
As autumn turned to winter the leaves fell from the trees, the flowers drooped and died, and to the bears everything seemed so dismal – even the flowers they’d wanted to bring home would have been dead by now, and the earth was bare in the garden.
Except for one patch.
The soil where Bill had planted the tiny onion-looking things back in September had the only shoots of fresh green. In January, when there were no other flowers to brighten the gloomy chilly days, the delicate snowdrops emerged from the ground.
The bears were delighted! In the middle of winter, when everything seemed cold and dark, these beautiful white flowers from Bill’s bulbs made them smile when nothing else was growing.
It had definitely been worth the wait!
Teddy tales: Teddy flowers
Tino is learning the names of some garden flowers. Can you help him by solving the riddles?
Click here for the teddy flowers activity sheet
Tino, Tilly, Roberta, Rupert, Lord Meight and all of Bill’s collection of 269 bears will soon be moving into a new home at Mr Simpson’s Teddy Bear Museum in Milestones Museum. Find out how we’re getting the bears ready for their move.
Tino's Tales was made by Mark Fenton, Ruth James, Caroline Johnson, Helen Sinnamon and Nick Suffolk
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