My Mama's Flowers

My Mama loved flowers. It seems like there was always something blooming in the yard. Magnolia trees graced the front yard and the corner of the backyard, where I often “played over the fence” with my backyard neighbor, Debbie Hauck. 

Debbie Hauck and Me having a tea party near the magnolia tree

Sometimes Mama would let me pick a blossom that I could reach and bring it inside where its fragrance filled the house. You had to be very careful because every place you touched would turn brown. The wisteria bush in the middle of the front yard smelled like Vacation Bible School punch. The bees loved it too.

Melinda in the front yard

A row of crape myrtles lined the other side of the driveway. Red amaryllises ringed the oak tree. The Easter Bunny would often make a nest of Spanish moss around the tree among the amaryllises to hide his Easter eggs. Finding those Easter eggs was one of the Easter morning rituals.

Melinda, my brother Jimmie, and my Mama on Easter Sunday

My mama often planted gladioluses too. What I think was a Florida jasmine bush grew in the corner of the front yard by the street. The branches came out from the center and draped all the way to the ground. They were studded with small star-shaped yellow flowers. The coolest thing about that bush was that you could hide inside in a little secret tunnel. The flower box on the front porch was always filled with shrimp plants, and a coral vine climbed the trellis at the end of the porch. I spent a lot of time sitting in the mimosa tree surrounded by little tufts of pink fairy dust. Bridal’s wreath that bloomed in the front flower bed often provided bouquets for my Barbie dolls. A sweetheart rosebush welcomed me at the backyard gate. Althea bushes (Rose of Sharon) grew in the backyard near the clothesline. The backyard fence was often covered with sweet peas with the best fragrance in the world. Sometimes I would pick a bouquet of them to fill the little two handled china vase that sat on a doily in the middle of the table. The fence that we shared with Mrs. Klaus was lined with day lilies.

A couple of years ago my cousin and I were driving past my old house on West 22^nd Street in Houston, and we noticed that my little wood frame house was about to be moved to make way for the gentrification of the neighborhood. We got out and walked around the place. The day lilies were still there. When I told the mover that the house my childhood home and that my mother had planted the day lilies, he asked if I would like for him to dig up a few to keep. I transplanted them to the farm, where they have done very well. These are the first blooms this year.

I also planted sweet peas this year. I was a little late in getting them in the ground. They should be planted in October to do really well. One year, when we lived in Castle Heights in Waco, I planted them in October and harvested them by the armfuls about this time of year. The showing is not stellar this year, but the fragrance of even a few fills me with memories and lifts my spirits.