Gardenias

This is a particularly special picture to me. Sure, to anyone else it's just another picture of gardenias, but to me, it has a much deeper meaning.

My Mom always loved gardening. She and my Dad spent so much time outside together, planting and mulching, always on time, every year. I never enjoyed it, in fact I despised it. I watered the flowers usually daily, but if I wasn't asked to do, I certainly never went out of my way to do it. One day in particular, my Mom was planting new flowers, and she wanted my help. I always did as I was told, but never without a fight. I never understood why I had to do so much - the normal thoughts of a teenager with parents that cared. As per usual, I argued, and she said, "You know, one day you will love flowers as much as I do." Of course to that, I said, "Yeah, right, Mom. That will never happen." She just laughed. As a teenager, I could never fathom ever enjoying being outside in the blazing heat, just digging holes to put flowers in them. I always found better things to do.

Years past, I got married, and then a year and half later, Mom passed away. My husband and I were able to tell her a few months beforehand that we were building a house, a thought I'd like to think brought her peace that we were building a life and would create many memories together.

With a new house, comes HOAs, and having to live up to the standards of suburban neighborhood life. My husband and I decided to plant some flowers, both of us having similar feelings towards gardening. He actually accidentally cut the irrigation line in the process! With the struggle of planting and watching flowers die, I was convinced that I have what I like to call a "black thumb", cursed to always kill plants no matter what. Unfortunately, I never paid attention when my Mom planted her flowers. Maybe I would have learned something.

I have only recently started to understand gardening with lots of trial and error, and of course using Google and You Tube. I planted these gardenias, as you see in the picture, last year. I was sure I was going to kill these too. When I planted them, the blooms immediately fell off, and never came back. That is, until today. Gardenias were one of my Mom's favorite flowers, mostly for the scent. The feeling of seeing these flowers bloom is something I never could have imagined. As I took the picture, the wind blew the scent into the air, as fragrant as ever. I'd like to think that these flowers have bloomed today, on Mother's Day, because of Mom, who's still with me. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there.