Floral Memories

Today I was reading about the Titan arum flower more commonly known as the "Corpse Flower". I was already familiar with these fascinating plants that only bloom once every 7 to 10 years releasing a massive amount of stored energy to pollenate as well as a godawful rotting smell thus earning it's name. Despite my familiarity I always take the opportunity to watch a time lapse of this giant that sometimes reaches upwards of 10' tall and blooms for just 48 hours before dying. I hope to see one of these marvels of mother nature some day (but maybe not to smell it).

Flowers turned out to be the theme of the day with Ana and I working briefly on a modular garden in our backyard (more on that later) and seeing several flowers on our evening walk. It got me to thinking about all the times flowers have been a key element in significant events of my life. We give flowers for romance, triumph, remorse, respect, when morning and "just because". I have flowers from my grandmother and fathers funeral pressed into the family bible. I've made origami flowers as gifts to friends, used them to flirt with girls when I was younger and to raise money for charity.

I suppose it shouldn't surprise me then that the site of specific flowers trigger memories. My father as gruff as he could be loved flowers and always took great care to nurture and grow flowers each year in the various garden beds around our house. The largest was in the middle of our backyard with a large flagpole in the center ringed with various colors of Marigolds and Geraniums radiating out to the railroad ties that formed a raised octagon. As such I associated the sight of these two types of flowers in particular to him. I remember every year shopping at the nursery up the street from us and going home to plant them. It's funny, at the time it always seemed like a waste of a Saturday to me but now I'd give anything to help my father garden for a day.

Here are a few pictures of my family that came up with the keyword search of "flower".

Ana with her bounty of flowers from the hardware store

Me holding flowers from a wedding in Romania in 2008

My beautiful daughter in the Bellagio garden in Las Vegas

Bridget enjoying the smell of a geranium

Mom's annex of the yard for tulips

An origami flower I left on my great-great grandfathers grave

A reward given to an adorable dancer

I left these flowers for DeeDee (her favorite) on her door 2 days before she passed away :(

Geocaching trackable award from MOGA 2017

The girls at the Kansas State Fair

Remembering my Grandmother and Grandfather on Memorial Day

Fabric roses made by Girl Scouts to remember those lost to Covid

4/13/2021