Most of the plants in my garden are there for no particular reason other than I wanted them. Perhaps I liked the color, or needed something just that size to fill a particular spot. Others might be rescue plants or plants I picked up in a plant swap. A few are from dear friends and I always think of them as I watch them over the seasons. Some I have collected for a specific purpose. They are there to remind me of loved ones that have passed. A favorite color, favorite plant or a plant I remember from their garden. Each reminds me of that person. When I was little I remember my grandma’s allysum. Hers was a patio garden that was filled with overflowing planters. Lavender and white allysum lived happily with the other flowers she grew. Allysum has always reminded me of her. Mom liked roses and her favorite color was the salmon/apricot color. The miniature rose I have is for her. A neighbor and dear friend who we all called grandma Lou had a geranium that grew in a planter on her patio. It was in California so it lived outside there year round. The geranium in my flower bed is for her. I do feel close to all of them as I look after these plants in particular.
5 thoughts on “In Memory”
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That is such a lovely way of remembering a loved one.
I inherited my grandma’s love of flowers and began to cultivated it 5-6 years ago.
I am now 54 years old and I seem to gravitate toward those flowers I remember her speaking fondly of when I was still a child still living in Cuba.
I remember a bush in particular that she seemed to enjoy more than most, she called it a pound cake (panetela) bush. It seemed like an ordinary bush until you got close to it and realized that the edge of all the leaves were covered with a row of minute salmon colored tiny blooms.
Not impressed jet?
Come 6 pm when the evening started to cool down THE FRAGRANCE OF BAKING BUTTER POUND CAKE INVADED THE YARD AND THE HOUSE!
I have never found that bush in the US but the fragrance and the memory are so vivid in my mind and i guess minds have nostrils also LOL
My maternal grandmother was the gardener of our family. Although I was young when she was hospitalized, I remember how the thing she worried about most and was most bitter about when she returned home after her recovery was her plants. No one had taken care of her houseplants and most had died.
She loved wandering in the mountains of northern New Mexico and knew all the plants and the cures that could be made from them. The flower I associate with her the most is the columbine. Whenever I see it in bloom, I think of her.
Thanks for sharing your memories. Do you think our loved ones know when we are thinking of them? I do. I always wonder what kind of memories I am making now for my daughter to have in years to come. She told me the other day how much she appreciates my gardening and the things we eat that come from it. I can almost see her talking to her kids some day and telling them about their grandmother’s garden and all of the goodies that woudl result.
Maria if you ever find out what that plant is I would love to know. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.
It’s nice to read about someone who plants like this – then your garden becomes a collection of wonderful plants AND stories. I do this all of the time – a white camellia was planted when a close friend died of a brain tumor, a new climbing rose when I had a dog euthanized…impatiens in honor of my grandmother, who covered her yard in them. The garden becomes one rambly and wonderful story.
Pam,
Thanks for sharing your garden. Yes it is so much more than just plants isn’t it?