Scentimental Plants

I think we all have that one plant that brings back memories or celebrates the past.  I'm slowly making my yard a small forest in testament to many years of hiking through the woods and the Morton Arboretum.  I have tucked in a number of plants that have stories attached to them.

My maternal grandparents lived in Glen Ellyn and although they moved to Arizona when I was eight, I still remember the A-frame house my grandfather built.  Their next door neighbor was a very sweet lady named Ginger with an extensive wildflower garden. She, of course, grew wild ginger in abundance.  For her, I have planted it under my birdbaths and it is doing very very well.

My birthday is in May, so my birth flower is lily of the valley.  While Convallaria majalis isn't everyone's cup of tea, I have patches of it all over the yard.  It's only fragrant for a couple of weeks, but inevitably it blooms on my birthday.  There's a nice bouquet sitting on the dining room table right now.  I just pull it when it gets in the way.

My husband's grandmother lived in a cottage on a lake in Meredith, New Hampshire.  For our fifth anniversary, we did a driving tour of New England and stayed with Grammie for three nights.  We had a lovely time and she was a very special lady with boundless curiosity.  In her yard was an ancient lilac with deep purple petals and a white picotee edge. Years later, I found it when I started working at the garden center.  Now 'Sensation' lilac graces the strip along the drive.  Maybe not the most fragrant of the lilacs, but the elegant petals still capture my heart.

Sensation lilac just beginning to open.