Cicely Mary Barker was influenced by the huge popular interest in fairies spawning from the Victorian enthusiasm for fairy stories. Her interest was further fueled by the popularity of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan in the dawn of the 20th century. Flower Fairies of the Spring was Published in 1923, and was well received by a public who was charmed by her vision of innocence and hope during an era torn asunder by the first World War.

Cicely Mary Barker always used real-life children to model for her paintings. Most of the children came from the kindergarten her sister Dorothy taught in the back room of the house they resided in.

The flowers in Cicely Mary Barker's paintings were always botanically accurate. If there wasn't a flower close at hand, she would recieve samples from the staff at Kew Gardens. Cicely's Flower Fairies are not ethereal fairies of the supernatural, but portraits of real children, whose characters match the characteristics of the flowers.