Garden memories

Gardening is so special to me.  It connects me with my past - my mother, grandmother and aunts all loved flowers, and many of the plants that I have originally came from them.  I believe that it is important to preserve flowers and plants in the same way that we save animals, trees, and other things from extinction. Many are getting harder and harder to find.  A perfect example is the old fashioned re-seeding petunia.  There are all kinds of petunias available now, but do you remember that smell? the smell of the petunias in your grandmother's yard? They were white and several shades of purple/lavender.  SO beautiful!
Another favorite of mine that grew in my grandmother's yard were Sweet Williams. You can find them now, but I don't think the new varieties are perennial.  What about "raggedy robins" - do you remember those? Most people call them batchelor buttons, but my grandmother called them raggedy robins, and they are native to Georgia. 
Flowers bring back memories for me.  When I was a little girl, I was taught by my mother how to make "necklaces" out of clover blossoms by tying stems of one around the stem of another. My cousins and I would tie them together and make not only necklaces, but halos for our hair and bracelets. We'd also pick 4 o'clocks and string them like beads with a needle and thread, to make leis. 

This peony came from one that grew at Grandma Sanvidge's house in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Lilac like the ones in Wisconsin.

Flowers were also part of summers in Wisconsin.  My Grandma Sanvidge grew beautiful peonies, lilacs and clematis.  The first clematis I ever remember seeing grew on a trellis by her back door.