Flowers and memories

Community Leader
Registered: 07-25-2000
Flowers and memories
3
Wed, 05-28-2008 - 8:32am

I just passed a house yesterday with a lovely display of foxglove blooming in the front yard. I was immediately back at my Aunt Rachel's house almost 60 years ago. My earliest memory of her has to do with the huge (to me, at least) bed of foxglove that she had growing by her front porch. It probably impressed me so because the flowers were taller than I was at the time! And so those flowers are inextricably woven with my memories of her.


Gladiolus remind me always of my Dad. He was a farmer and a flower lover. He grew many flowers, but his favorite were his glads. Many a summer morning I would get up before daylight to accompany him to the farmers' market where he sold bunches of them from the back of his car.


Are there flowers that bring back memories for you?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 05-28-2008 - 10:41am

I have 2 special memories -

When I was 6, I had my appendix removed in early June and spent over a week in hospital. My DM would bring huge bouqets of peonies each day and my room smelled wonderful. The staff would stop by just to sniff and see them. I thought DM (a single mother working in a defense plant) had spent a fortune at the florists. When I grew up and became a gardener, I realized that peonies were in everyone's yard that time of year and I'll bet a neighbor gave her the flowers.

The other memory is 4 o'clocks. The recent trip to old neighborhood in Chicago reminded me of a yard that had a hedge of these that smelled like talcum powder late in the day. Darby observed that the lovely small front gardens of my childhood probably gave me the interest in gardening that carried over when I had my own house and yard.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2003
Wed, 05-28-2008 - 11:05am

A belated welcome to you Becky. I've been AWOL for awhile. I'm Darby in No. IL, have 2 married "kids" and one adorable dgd. I take care of B&Bs when the owners are on vacation and have been working more than I want to lately. I love gardening, scrapbooking, bike riding and reading. Glad you joined us.


To answer your question, I remember the hollyhocks that grew in our yard and making dolls out of them. Also the old fashioned climbing roses that grew on my grandma's front porch were so fragrant. There's a famous painting that has a woman sitting on a front porch with my grandma's roses


 



 
Avatar for daggs170
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Wed, 05-28-2008 - 1:54pm

No special memory of any special flower or flowers, but my grandparents had a rock garden and I worked in it one year and weeded the whole thing and the plants came back beautifully and I loved all the flowers and colors but can't remember what they were.

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