#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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THAT TALL! Gardening, week 11

Hi, everyone.  I was away for almost a week and when I returned...  Oh, my how everything had grown. Outside the bluebells opened and the lilacs bloomed.

Inside... While we were gone, our pet-house sitter watered every day and turned the trays so the plants weren't always facing into the light the same way.  I had planted paste tomatoes before we left and asked that she water those from the bottom and spray the new plants as they popped up. The lights were on timers and the heat pads were still on at three of the stations.  We had warmer weather and the basements warmed up, too, which I'm sure helped the growth process.  This morning I moved many of the petunias to a sun porch greenhouse--one I purchased at Lowe's. At night I'll lower the plastic covering.  Earlier today I also transplanted some of the tallest tomatoes and staked them.  For stakes I collect strong outside branches that fall.  I also have some bought at Lowe's that my husband sawed in differing lengths. I use a heavier twine to tie the plants loosely to the stake.  This will change as the plants grow.  I might transplant again, substitute a taller stake, and retie as needed. But we're on our way!