#Flowers In Honor Of #Mom by Karen Rose Smith

Mother's Day is a bittersweet holiday for anyone who has lost his or her mother.  Remembrance is so important.  Avoiding loss just brings more of it.  At times, embracing it is the best therapy.  One way I remember my mom and embrace her again, is to plant her favorite flowers in our gardens.  These forget-me-nots which are truly appropriate bloom every year around Mother's Day. They spread their little blue blossoms far and wide and can be transplanted to different locations.  My mom loved them.

When I was a child in elementary school, I often took flowers to my teacher.  (My mom was an elementary school teacher and I know how she appreciated them.)  In May, my mom and I would go to our backyard early before school started and cut a bouquet to take along.  We have a traditional lilac.  But we also planted these reblooming lilacs.  They're gorgeous in spring but will bloom again a few times over the summer.  Remembrance throughout the season.

At my childhood home, we had a small bank near a fence.  Fuchsia and white creeping phlox adorned that bank.  Even though we had a particularly harsh winter in Pennsylvania this year, the creeping phlox are more beautiful than I've ever seen them.

You know how you get that "welcome home" feeling when you see your front yard?  In the spring, fuchsia azaleas bloomed under our dining room and living room windows at my childhood home.  Although azaleas are sometimes have a difficult time wintering, the ones there lasted from the time we moved in until the year I had to sell the house.  We've had trouble growing them where we live now, but we bought two little bushes last year that somehow made it through this winter. They're blooming.

At Easter and Mother's Day, we often gave my mom hyacinths which were one of her favorite flowers.  She loved the scent.  One year as she was growing older and couldn't plant them, she returned one to us to plant in our garden.  Twenty years later, it's still growing.  Hyacinths are one of the first flower signs that a new blooming season is upon us.  This garden which also has her favorite summer flowers--like daisies, roses and zinnias--is my way of feeling closer to her.

May your mother's hand touch yours in some way this Mother's Day.

©2014 Karen Rose Smith

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Signs of #Spring in #Pennsylvania by Karen Rose Smith

After a long harsh winter in Pennsylvania, we finally have signs of spring.  The last week brought temperatures in the 60's and 70's. Just like all of us who have cabin fever, our garden plants couldn't wait to bud and bloom.  In the past few days, wonderful scents and vibrant colors are dotting our gardens, assuring us that planting season isn't far away.  We're supposed to have rain and cooler temperatures for the next week and I wanted to document these beauties before that happened.  This might be our spring before we hop into summer after the last cold spell. Our gnarled weeping cherry has just begun the blossoming process.

After my mom passed on, I planted a garden in her honor. I try to keep something blooming through the whole season.  These hyacinths are usually first to pop up.

This is a newer variety of hyacinth that is supposed to be more fragrant and fuller.  It's gorgeous.

Two tone and frilly!

Old Fashioned Bluebells

I hope your garden gives you as much pleasure as ours does.  It is my peaceful place to write or relax.  And I'm looking forward to more color and blooms.  I often post garden photos on my Facebook page along with writing news and cat pics!

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©2014 Karen Rose Smith

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Mother's Day Memorial Garden -- How I Remember

Mother's Day is here again.  Spring is rich with memories as well as flowers.  When a mom is gone, the Mother's Day commercials, cards and sentiments are hard to watch.  So for many years, we've tended a Memorial Garden in our yard where lots of my mom's favorite flowers and bushes grow.  We started small at first.  Originally a circular ring surrounded three Canadian Hemlock trees.  We expanded to include spirea bushes which formed a privacy border around the backyard of my childhood home.  In following seasons, I found a statue of a little girl on a bench with a basket for flowers.  We surrounded her with forget-me-nots.  A border of hyacinths bloom with color and fragrance in early spring. 
 

Each year, some aspect of the garden changes.  Bleeding hearts, another of Mom's favorites, have grown tall.  We lost a hemlock and replaced it with an Alaskan cedar.  A yellow rose bush--my mom especially liked yellow roses--produces rose hips and we don't trim it back as much as our other garden roses.  For the past few years, I've been growing flowers from seeds.  In early summer, we plant geraniums I grow and sow zinnia seeds to replace the spring flowers. This year I'm adding Shasta daisies for two reasons. My mom liked them and...  I've named a dog in my second mystery "Shasta" to commemorate that.

Just as life continuously changes, the garden does, too.  Each bush that greens, each flower that sprouts, each blossom that blooms and gives off a glorious scent, brings back memories.  So on Mother's Day, as well as through the summer, I remember and relive a little of my childhood all over again.
 


©2013 Karen Rose Smith



IN TOUCH with KAREN ROSE SMITH ezine
Karen Rose Smith's romance website
Karen Rose Smith's mystery website

Mother's Day Memorial Garden

Mother's Day is here again.  Spring is rich with memories as well as flowers.  When a mom is gone, the Mother's Day commercials, cards and sentiments are hard to watch.  So for many years, we've tended a Memorial Garden in our yard where lots of my mom's favorite flowers and bushes grow.  We started small at first.  Originally a circular ring surrounded three Canadian Hemlock trees.  We expanded to include spirea bushes which formed a privacy border around the backyard of my childhood home.  In following seasons, I found a statue of a little girl on a bench with a basket for flowers.  We surrounded her with forget-me-nots.  A border of hyacinths bloom with color and fragrance in early spring. 
 

Each year, some aspect of the garden changes.  Bleeding hearts, another of Mom's favorites, have grown tall.  We lost a hemlock and replaced it with an Alaskan cedar.  A yellow rose bush--my mom especially liked yellow roses--produces rose hips and we don't trim it back as much as our other garden roses.  For the past few years, I've been growing flowers from seeds.  In early summer, we plant geraniums I grow and sow zinnia seeds to replace the spring flowers. This year I'm adding Shasta daisies for two reasons. My mom liked them and...  I've named a dog in my second mystery "Shasta" to commemorate that.

Just as life continuously changes, the garden does, too.  Each bush that greens, each flower that sprouts, each blossom that blooms and gives off a glorious scent, brings back memories.  So on Mother's Day, as well as through the summer, I remember and relive a little of my childhood all over again.
 

©2013 Karen Rose Smith



IN TOUCH with KAREN ROSE SMITH ezine
Karen Rose Smith's romance website
Karen Rose Smith's mystery website