How To Brighten The Day

  Today was one of those "feel blah" days.  Maybe I am just pushing myself a bit too much trying to get things straightened out in the gardens or maybe I am still a tad under the weather or maybe I am just missing my kids...maybe it is a combination of all those things.  Who knows???  Still, regardless of the multitude of things that needed to be done, my brain was in a fog.  The day passed with me acting like some animatronic puppet.  Late this afternoon, I took one last hike about the property.  As usual, the hike started at the pier and then meandered around back to the canebrake before taking me into the vegetable garden.  It was there that my attitude had a major adjustment.

  While in the back near the creek, I noticed that the Cherokee Roses were blooming.  Their white blossoms could be seen far up in the branches of the maples that dot the creek bed.  Seeing this made me hurry to the garden.  On the east arbor, our wild Cherokee Rose was in full bloom.  Yep, it is still February and the thing is splashing white blooms everywhere among the spring-green leaves.  Ahh, how delightful!   This rose is one that Son and I braved the brambles of the creek to dig and bring home.  It has not failed to bloom every year since.

  I am not sure if it was the rose that lifted my spirits of if, perhaps, it was the memory of Son's patience with my request of having the bush.  Either way, I do feel better.  Still miss my kids but I do feel some better.

Grandmother's Rose

Many years ago, my grandfather kept a most beautiful yard.  It was always impeccably kempt and always was full of blooming flowers.  I never remember it not having tons of flowers in bloom!  I always loved to walk around his place and admire the colors and shapes of the blossoms.  He would walk with me and point out different flowers or plants.  He would not let me focus just on the showy flowers but we would also study all aspects of the plant.  Was the stem woody?  Did it have thorns?  Was there any milky sap leaking from a recent wound?  Did the blossom smell?  How many petals were on the flower?  Everything was a lesson and Granddaddy made sure that I learned that lesson.   I did not mind this in the least since I was truly interested!  One thing that impressed me was that no matter how hard Granddaddy worked in his gardens, he never claimed that these were his plants.  The flowers belonged to Grandmother.  Other than occasionally picking a bouquet, I never saw her work in the flower beds.  Still, these were Grandmother's flowers!  It was a matter of love.  My grandparents had that sort of "fairy-tale love" that is depicted in the movies.  If it made Grandmother happy then Granddaddy was happy.

On the west end of their house, he built a large trellis.  Within just a short time, the trellis was covered with a beautiful rose.  Each year the rose bush would bloom profusely and he would announce that "Grandmother's rose is blooming!"  This rose is an antique rose known as "New Dawn"  It has nice size roses that appeared almost white.  On closer inspection, the rose proved to be a gorgeous pink!  Grandmother would don her gloves, pick up her basket and snips to pick a large bouquet.  Usually, Granddaddy would tote the basket for her.  Sometime he would cut the roses to keep her from being stabbed by the thorns.  And, always, he would tell her how lovely "her" rose was doing!  She would smile sweetly at him and say "Thank you, Mr. Joe."  (I never figured out just why she would call him "Brother Joe" but when she did, you could just feel the love flowing through those words.  

Today, the fairy-tale love..in the form of the New Dawn rose..continues to grow in my garden.  Most of my other rose bushes have died.  This one, however, flourishes!  Since my rose grows from a cutting of "Grandmother's Rose", do you suppose the love grows through it?  Can such a thing be handed down from generation to generation?  I like to think so!  I like to think that my grandparent's love surges through the stalks of the rose even today!  Now that is a nice happy thought for today!

"A rose by any other name....."

I was out wandering around the garden the other day and a thought popped into my head about the names given to different flowers. Some have very forthright names that make a lot of sense..like Sunflower. It is quite easy to see just why this bloom is named after the sun...it is yellow, after all, and the blossom does "follow" the sun. During the day, the head of this flower will actually turn to face the sun. But then there are some that have weird names. Take the Toad Lily..it is a beautiful flower with a quite...well..not so beautiful name (unless you really like toads!). I guess it goes back to that Notable-Person-in-Charge-of-Naming-Plants, whoever that may be.

All this thinking soon led to a few more random thoughts and as I meandered through the gardens, I started pondering how some people are named after flowers! Mostly ladies have these names bestowed on them but still, there are a few guys that are named after plants. Basil comes to mind as a rather manly name but I also met a Sorrel, once. Daisy, Rose, Iris all seem to have been popular years ago and are now making a comeback in the baby-naming trends. Lily, Jasmine, Violet and Pansy have been always been used as names for little girls and now I hear that Calla, Dahlia, Camellia and Amaryllis are gaining popularity. One flower name that used to be quite the rage but that has fallen from grace is Petunia. (Ever since a certain cartoon pig was called by that handle, it would be a rare instance that anyone would tack that to their little girl!)

Those are all beautiful names and I truly would not mind being called by any of them had my parents felt the need to name me after a flower. At least, all of those are lovely and bring to mind a free-spirited, little sprite! Yes, I would have been A-OK with being dubbed a floral name as long as it was not something like...Toad Lily..or Spiderwort...or Scabiosa! Nope..that would not have been acceptable and might have called for a name-change!