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denisew03

Plants that bring back memories

denisew
16 years ago

I was commenting in another forum about trying to bring some plants back from my great-aunt's garden in Iowa to grow here because it was something to remind me of her. Well, none of them made it because it is just too hot and humid here. There are plants that remind me of relatives that have passed away. Lily of the valley reminds me of my grandmother who grew them along the north side of her house. They smelled so wonderful each spring when we would go visit her. Ferns and Jack in the pulpits reminded me of my great aunt because she had them growing all around her little white house. I don't think she did anything to them except let them grow. Hey, she was 94 when she died, so they were easy for her to grow. She was very active visiting the "old people" at the local nursing home up until about two weeks before she died. She was a character!

Anyway, I was just wondering if there are plants that remind you of loved ones. Do you have any of those plants from their gardens in your garden now?

Comments (32)

  • jolanaweb
    16 years ago

    The majority of my plants my GM and GF had in theirs
    All irises escept one came from their gardens. My cousins have their actual plants and every year I get more and more cuttings or seeds.
    I couldn't do that until I was in our (hopefully) forever home.
    Hollyhocks, foxglove, lantana,sedum,rose of sharon,borage,
    bachelor buttons (haven't seen signs of them yet tho)
    too many too remember right now.
    I adored my GF and he had the greenest thumb I've ever seen and the kindest soul, I've ever known
    jolana

  • jardineratx
    16 years ago

    Goodness, most of my garden is filled with plants from people whose memories I treasure. I have many plants that simply remind me of homes/places from my childhood. The old-fashion reseeding petunias are a must for me. Their fragrance brings a mini re-enactment of spring days of my childhood. I find myself seeking more and more of any type of these memory-provoking plants. This spring I am growing borage and rue (always present in my mom's garden) along with many roses. I remember my mom anxiously awaiting the J&P catalogs so she could place an order for her bareroot roses. Back then, people didn't spend the kind of money we do on plants so the once-a-year order for a couple of roses was something she looked forward to. I think everything else she and my aunts and grandparents grew were "pass along" plants and others were grown from seed.

  • cllueless
    16 years ago

    When I was a child, my grandparents had a vitex tree in their yard. I can still remember the fragarance of the leaves, and also the sting of the switches made from the branches. I also remember the persimmon, pear and pecan trees in their yard. That was over sixty years ago and I still think of them when I smell the vitex.

  • mikeandbarb
    16 years ago

    Both sides of my family garden but what I remember most are Roses, CM, pear tree, pepper plants easter lilies and snap dragons.
    I have one CM and roses but don't want a pear tree can't eat that many pears by myself LOL and snap dragons don't do well here but every time I see them I think of my dear sweet grandmother it was her fave flower.
    My granny had roses in her front yard and I would steal a few to take to a neighbor lady that lived a few house up from her and every time I'd get caught and get in trouble.
    The pear tree was in the back yard, my dog's dog house was right by it and I would sit on top of the dog house pick a pear and eat it right off the tree, best pears I ever had.
    I have never been able to eat pears from the store yuck LOL.

  • lindseyrose
    16 years ago

    My grandmother called my just today to talk to me about african violets. I don't have any yet, as I've been very hesitant to try any houseplants, let alone these with a reputation for being "difficult." Well, she's encouraging me to try them. Apparently her MIL (my grean-grandmother, God rest her soul) had hundreds of AV. So I think, in her honor and memory, I will give one a try this year. I think I have the perfect window for them, if my grandmother describes the conditions accurately.

    I can't grow really anything that my grandmother grows, because she lives in Denver. I'm going to try, though. She brought me seeds from some crazy zinnias and marigolds that she grew last summer.

  • tessa74
    16 years ago

    Dahlia's!!! Big Beautiful ones at the front of the house of my great granni's. Attempting to grow them here, but so far have not had too encouraging news. Trying anyways! some are 3inches tall now! yeah! jenn

  • sylviatexas1
    16 years ago

    My Aunt Pansy had a huge four o'clock by her gate.
    I just loved it;
    when I stayed with her, we *had* to go see the four o'clocks (& her Pekinese dogs & her ring-neck doves) before I would go to bed!

    My Aunt Lillie always had irises, which she called "flags".
    as in, "Nick! Keep those children out of my flags!"
    I must have been about 4 years old, & I learned to respect other people's gardens & flowers. & to love irises.

    My grandmother had fragrant wisteria, Pride of Barbados, moss rose (portulaca) growing in an old metal dishpan, &, her main joy, a Seven Sisters Rose.

    Today I have four o'clocks, wisteria, irises, Pride of Barbados...
    & Seven Sisters was the first rose I actually paid money for.

    I was a nervous wreck when a cold front blew through the week after I planted it.
    I had the flu, but I drove to the store & bought a plastic tarp to cover it (not knowing that an old bedsheet would have been better), came back home, angled the car so that the headlights shone on the rose, covered it, pinned down the tarp with bricks, went inside, & collapsed.

    Next morning, I was sick as a dog.
    The rose was perfectly perky!

    Today, it's huge;
    it's climbed a crepe myrtle, a fence, & an apricot tree.
    & right now, at this very moment, it's heavily in bud, with just the first few blossoms already open.

    makes me smile every time I see it!

  • bo_berrin
    16 years ago

    I had a lilac bush a few years ago when I lived in Abilene. The fragrance of the blooms took me right back to my childhood! And I wasn't the only one; I put a couple blooms in a vase on my desk at work. A co-worker came into my office, stopped dead in her tracks, took a DEEP breath of lilac-scented air, and then burst into a stream-of-consciousness monologue, something like, (gasp), "Grandma's house! Iowa! Magdalena Becker! Auntie May's spice cake!" etc. It was so funny to see her swept back in an instant to her hometown and all the people there. I've read that of our five senses, the sense of smell is the one most closely linked to memory. We should all use that to link our children's memories to us! I need to go get another lilac bush. :-)

  • ambersas
    16 years ago

    Peonies! I brought some from MI where my Mother grew them from some plants of her Mother to Maryland where they grew merrily for years - as long as you kept the white separated from the red ones. The whites would over run the reds.
    I now have them here - I know the heat is probably not going to help them much, but they survived last summer and even managed a couple of buds this year so I'm excited to see that.

    Roses too! They were her favorites but when I think of her gardens, she always had many colors of zinnias and cosmos too.

    And the smell of lilacs and lilies of the valley in the Spring. . . . many childhood memories.

    Dorothy

  • pjtexgirl
    16 years ago

    Roses. My mother grew hundreds of roses. Graham Thomas was her favorite.PJ

  • scuba-gal
    16 years ago

    As a child we had one fence with Carolina Jasime on it that I loved, evening primrose was my weed of choice - we called them buttercups and I just love the way they spell. BUT my all time favorite is Wisteria...our neightbor grew it on a chain link fence between our houses and to this day everytime I smell it I feel like a child. Funny how smell affect our memeories and bring on good feelings from the past.

  • donquixote102
    16 years ago

    Pomegranates (sp) although we called them "plumgranites" and mulberries. Also, one of my grandmothers was the first in town to have a mimosa tree, and people marvelled over it. (Who could know what a trash plant that was!) She once ordered something called "primrose" from a catalog up North, and the plant turned out to be what we called buttercups and are considered weeds here.
    Don

  • natvtxn
    16 years ago

    My vitex trees came from my MIL's house. I have cemetary whites iris that I got start from 3rd ggrandfather's grave in Cistern, TX.
    At my previous house, I had wisteria from an ancestor's house in Flatonia, TX. I need to get a start of that from the owner.

    I have several iris from friends. I bought myself a confederate rose. My great granmother had a huge one at her house.
    I have queen Ann's lace due to the memories my mother had. Her mother would make a bouguet of pink oleanders and QA's lace.
    Roses do not do well in the Rio Grande Valley. I have an old photo of my ggrandmother standing proudly by her large rose bush. I wish I knew what kind it was. But anyone that could tell me is now gone.

  • sylviatexas1
    16 years ago

    If your photo shows the rose in bloom, I bet someone on the Antique Roses Forum could identify it.

  • trsinc
    16 years ago

    My parents divorced when i was 14. At about age 20, I dug up some day lilies from my Dad's house (which is where I grew up) to bring to my mom. She's the one that planted them. She kept them going in pots and brought me a pot of them last year, now 18 years after I brought them to her.

    For some reason, paper whites and pansies always make me think of my Grandmother. Hydrangeas, Azaleas, and Magnolias always make me think of where I grew up.

    Where I live now is so different, that the only thing I have are the day lilies. Too dry and hot here for most things.

  • carolann_z8
    16 years ago

    Umbrella plant and lantana remind me of home.
    When I was a kid I used to pick an umbrella plant and a bloom off the lantana and play like it was my wedding day.

    The umbrella was a fancy parasol and the lantana was my tiny bouquet.

    What a dork I was. lol

  • tshcd
    16 years ago

    My grandparents always had half of their backyard used for a vegetable garden. They grew everything...tomatoes, onions, rhubarb, peppers, potatoes, corn and probably a lot more I don't remember. They kept that garden up until they moved from the house when they were about 87 and 86. Grandma always had potato vine growing up the trellis beside the back door, and her laundry room (an enclosed porch) had a million houseplants; I remember wandering jew, baby tears and aloe vera.

    My great-grandmother on the other side of the family had her whole backyard planted with flowers, to the point where there wasn't much lawn. She always had African violets under a fluorescent light on her desk.

    My family is from Kansas. The cemeteries up there have lots of peony bushes. One of my grandmothers passed away in May quite a few years back, and the flowers there around the grave were so beautiful. She'd have loved them.

  • natvtxn
    16 years ago

    Sylvia, it is a black and white photo.

  • jrmankins
    16 years ago

    I have two cuttings off the hundred year old pregnant fig that was there when the Halls sold their place to my Grandma and Grandpa in 1929. The fig is a Brown Turkey, I think. And some of Mama's red mailbox rose from the 1950's, probably Blaze or Dr. Huey (it started out Blaze and probably turned back into Dr. Huey). And as many of the old lilies as I could find when we sold the place, tho they are so sneaky I'm sure I missed some.

  • centraltexan
    16 years ago

    Jonquils are the #1 memory plant from my past. I grew up next door to my Great Grandmother. She kept me while my parents worked. She taught me to look forward to them blooming because it meant that spring was coming. She had them lined up and down her side walks. Her father had homesteaded land near where we lived and the original bulbs came with them to Texas. The bulbs at her house and now my house are all divisions of the bulbs her mother planted when they got here. She also had a McCoy vase that looked like Jonquils, once a spring she would let me pick Jonquils and put in the vace.

    The second plant would be a white moss rose. I can still see it, and even smell it. The rose had a good fragrance, but the moss when crushed it smelled like fresh ground black peppper. The bush was lost when the house was sold years ago and the new owner pulled it up. I've looked for the rose for years but have not been able to find it.I keep

    I have to credit my Great Grandmonther for my love of plants and gardens. She taught me so much about plants while I stayed with her. Much of it was taught as a game or play, but it stayed with me. The joke of the family is that she always was out in the yard with her head down and her butt up in the air, working in the yard. Of course she had a great yard with flowers everywhere. The cutting flowers were in the vegetable garden, you never cut a flower out of her front yard.

  • denisew
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    centraltexan - Isn't that all of our positions when we're gardening? - heads down with our butts up in the air? I can't walk through my front yard without seeing something that needs to be pulled and there it goes - butt up and head down!

  • scott_ingram
    16 years ago

    I have some Lila plants (old fashioned dianthus) that our neigbor gave us before she passed away. We took them with us when we moved. Also some Dot mums that were left over from my mother in law's funeral. They moved with us also. Good and sad memories while we tend and enjoy them.

  • carlyg
    16 years ago

    Hydrangeas make me think of one of my great grandmother's homes. I love the blues. Pecan and pear trees were important in my childhood. My grandparents always had a huge garden where we learned to work hard!! One of my favorites were butter beans. You don't see them much anymore in markets.

  • TxMarti
    16 years ago

    Lilacs bring back memories of cool summer evenings with the windows open.

  • liz_h
    16 years ago

    My Dad and my maternal Grandmother were both avid gardeners. I especially remember the lilacs from our child hood home. We would cut a huge bouquet for the house. When there was still snow on the ground we would cut a small branch from an apple tree and put it in a vase. We had apple blossoms inside weeks before there were any outside.

    What I remember most from Grandma's house were the peonies. She must have had at least a dozen, all slightly different and beautiful. Someday I may try them here.

  • bo_berrin
    16 years ago

    Liz, just saw some beautiful pale pink peonies growing strong in town, about five healthy plants. I stopped the car and appreciated them for a few minutes before moving on, and decided I'm going to try some, too.

  • liz_h
    16 years ago

    Bo, that's great news. May I ask what town? I'd love to see them. I've decided on the perfect spot for them - and think I'll start a new post.

  • yummykaz
    16 years ago

    My grandmother was a striking beauty. She had eyes so blue they were almost white. She loved opera AND the Rolling Stones. She was a holocuast survivor from Berlin, having had her twin brother killed at Majdanek death camp. So she was a survivor. I think this is why her favorite flower was the rose. She only grew YELLOW roses. I am not sure she put the yellow rose and Texas together. So whenever I see a yellow rose, I think that she is sending me a hi. She also had the largest Pomgrante trees...too bad I did not like them back them.
    My other grandmother who I called Bubbie ( yiddish) always had fruit trees. I recall her tangerine tree so I am trying to grow one.She also had a massive live bamboo fence.
    I could never afford those "old" houses now. My grandma's house used to sit in back of the "Domed Shadows" which was a seedy night club.People would pee in her yard...now it is a fancy shopping center I was told. Her home was on the market for 249K recently! I looked at the listing on har.com...no more roses.

  • natvtxn
    16 years ago

    Yummykaz, Your story makes me tear up. How bittersweet.

  • llongori
    16 years ago

    My Daddy was always so proud of his four o'clocks and his hibiscus. He died 11 years ago. I grow them now, and when I'm in the yard and I see them in bloom, I stop to tell him to look at my flowers. He was also proud of his azaleas, but I can't get them to grow here. Hydrangeias and sweet peas remind me of my grandmother, but they won't grow well here either. Ranunculas remind me of my dear Aunt Ginger.

  • PKponder TX Z7B
    16 years ago

    I've been seeing mimosa trees blooming. My mom loved mimosa and we always had a couple in the front yard.

    Pam

  • lonestarlion
    16 years ago

    Sometimes I think I'm the only person in the world who actually LIKES the smell of lantana. One whiff and I'm a kid again playing kickball in the neighbor's back yard. They always put me way-way out in the outfield next to a lantana bed.