The Scent of Days Gone By

As I picked my first bouquet of Lily-of-the-Valley this week, I breathed deeply to get every little bit of scent. This incredible fragrance unlocks memories of a small girl growing up in Northern Michigan gathering Lily-of-the-Valley flowers for my mom. They grew just outside the back door in a nice neat rectangle mass.

A few years back I stopped by that old farm house and dug a few from the back door patch. Okay, so my family doesn't own that farm any longer but no one was living there at the time and I doubt anyone will every notice!

I packed them back to Tennessee and planted them at Hyssop Hill where they were very happy and reproduced nicely. When we moved to our new location, I was careful to dig a few to bring with for my new garden. I felt like a pioneer woman bringing slips of plants to the unknown so that when she got homesick there would be something familiar in the garden. Carefully I put tucked the little roots in the edge of the shade garden and waited for spring.

When spring came I was so happy that the family -Lilly-of-the-Valley plants pushed their way up through the soil and were displaying their lovely new shiny green leaves. As I admired my handiwork (well God's handiwork really - I only transplanted them) I noticed a foot or so away some other leaves that looked very similar. In fact there were many many leaves throughout that shady area with those leaves popping up.
You guessed it. The folks who gardened here before obviously loved this plant as well. In fact, as I started working my way through various beds they were everywhere, in every cultivated space. Yes, the joke was on me. But what a great plant to have in abundance. I can pick bouquets to my hearts delight and dance in my mind to the tune of happy girlhood memories of days gone by...but not forgotten. Happy to share if anyone would like some :)