Garden Gifts

Last year I wrote a blog post about sprucing up my grandparents garden. My grandma was suffering from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and spent most of her time indoors. I wanted to give her something pretty to look at through the window, but I also want to try and encourage her to go outside. Hummingbird and bird feeders made her backyard really popular with the local wildlife. I split up a lot of plants from my own yard to help keep the costs down, and Farmer Fred was also generous with plants from his own garden. I was able to fill in their entire backyard with a variety of plants all for under $50, with over half of that going towards an orange tree for my grandpa. One of the plants that I received from Farmer Fred was an alstroemeria. The chunk he gave me was rather large, and I was able to split it up into several plants and share with other family members (and I kept some for myself too).
This past weekend my mom brought over a bunch of bulbs. Most were bearded irises that had been split up from my grandma's garden many years ago, but some were bulbs that I had planted in my mom's garden several years ago when I didn't have a garden of my own. On her way to my house she had also dropped off some bearded irises for my great aunt and her cousin (I think everyone in my family now has bearded irises!). In return I went through my garden and split up a bunch of my plants for my mom. She took home various kinds of rudbeckia and echinacea, which have happily reseeded themselves all over my garden. She also took home coreopsis, liatris spicata, and I split up that alstroemeria that I got from Farmer Fred again.

After we were done splitting up plants, we went around my garden with my 4 year old and we made a large bouquet of flowers to bring to my grandma. In that large bouquet was a lot of alstroemeria. My grandma never got to see hers bloom.

We brought the bouquet to where she's buried at St. Mary's Cemetery.

2010 was a difficult year for my family as we had to say goodbye to several family members who passed away long before they should have.

I took some a few flowers out of my grandma's bouquet to share with my cousin Harold, who also passed away this fall and is buried nearby.

The rest of the day ended up being an emotional garden day for me. As I planted the bearded irises that I got from my mom, I was noticing all of the plants in my garden that I've received from family and friends over the years. I have some hen and chicks that I dug out of my grandma's yard a year ago that my grandpa said she had got gotten from my great uncle Leonard, who we lost to cancer last August. I also cut back foliage from my dutch irises and daffodils yesterday that were bulbs that I planted in my mom's garden 9 years ago to use in my wedding (the dutch iris was my husband's favorite flower, daffodils were mine). A few years ago my mom dug up most of those bulbs (which have continuously multiplied over the years so she gave me several hundred of them), and since I didn't have room for all of them myself I happily shared them with other family and friends. We also have a gingko tree that my father-in-law got us when we first moved into this house. When he passed away a couple of years ago, our neighbor across the street brought us a white azalea. That azalea is planted next to the hydrangea that our good friend Patricia gave us when we first moved into this house, back in the summer of 2004.

So, as you can imagine, I cried. I cried because somehow I had forgotten about how connected my garden is to all of our family and friends, and how thankful I am that so many people have contributed to the beauty that we wake up to every morning. The alstroemeria that I received from Farmer Fred just a year ago is now in four different gardens in my family, and I'm sure it will continue to be divided and planted every time a family member buys a new house (along with bearded irises, of course!). The flowers will continue to make their way to St. Mary's Cemetery where my grandma, great-grandparents, cousins, and great aunts and uncles are buried. Last night before I went to sleep I made sure to send Fred an email to thank him, and to let him now how heavily that plant has become rooted in my family in just a short period of time. I hope I get to make that impact on someone someday.

Do you have a plant in your garden that is extra special to you? How about one that has been passed down through generations? I'd love to hear your stories!