Friendly Flowers

My mother liked to walk around her yard everyday and look at all her flowers.  She said,  "They remind me of the friends and family members who gave them to me and bring back pleasant memories."

Today, I walk around my yard and look at my flowers and remember my friends.

I don't know whether these are Coral Bells or Choral Bells but they remind me of Mother.  She always had some in her garden.

Our Mock Orange Bush reminds me of Mother, too.  It is a descendant of the bushes Mother gave us shortly after we moved into this house over forty years ago.  She said her mother always had mock orange in her garden.  Their scent reminds some people of the scent of true orange blossoms.  Below is a close-up of the flowers.

My neighbor across the street who has lived in her house longer than we have lived in ours gave me a start of this ground cover last year.

Another neighbor gave me a start of Moneyplant when my children were all in elementary school.  She and her husband passed away years ago.  Below is a photo of the seedpods from this plant.  Before long, they will turn a silvery color, the color of coins.  I have seen Northern Cardinals peck open the thin pod to get the seeds.

The neighbor who lived beside us from the time we moved in and whose daughter babysat for our children when they were young gave me starts of these peonies,  both the pink and the white ones.  This neighbor as passed on, also.

The start for this plant came from Tom's sister, Phyllis.  She calls it Wild Geranium but it is different from the wild geraniums in the Miami County woods.

Chuck, husband of my college roommate, gave me the seeds for these columbines and for purple ones as well.

This is the rose I painted from at Andy's Garden two years ago when the Plein Air Belles got together there.  I liked it so well I bought it.  I gave the painting to the friend I walk with on Saturday mornings.

We bought the two Weigela from Tom's college friend who owns a nursery.  We are pleased he suggested them.  The top one is red, the bottom one is variegated.

My daughter gave me this miniature red rose many years ago for Mother's Day.

My garden always has at least one of these.

Dandelion...What a lot of wonderful memories.  Memories of picking them when I was a child.  Remembering a certain grandson to whom I was giving plants to take to his mother.  "Mom doesn't need any of those yellow flowers.  We already have a lot of those."  And Cinda, the Gentle Breeze, who loves dandelions more than anyone I have ever known.  She taught me they are good to eat, full of vitamins that we humans need.  She taught me, too, that a tasty treat is a dandelion flower from a field untreated with pesticides dipped in pancake batter and deep-fried.