The garden is always where I’ve made my best friends in life so it really doesn’t surprise me all that much that I spend so much time there. Gardening was imprinted on me at an early age, following mom and her friends' backyards, sweet tea sloshing in cups, all of them pointing and instructing me, the little tag along, to dig a division for my mother’s garden. Of course, I was also entrusted with planting and caring for them, a task I really didn’t mind. My grandmother who I called Nonnie also helped me find my boldness in the garden. I remember hot summers driving around in her car when she came up to visit from Florida and we would swerve into driveways and knock on doors asking about beautiful flowers we had spotted in landscapes we passed by. We always made new friends and usually carried away at least an armload of plant starts. The garden felt communal where I was surrounded by love- even if the faces weren’t present, the flower stories stayed with me.Â
Then my Nonnie got cancer. She moved into our home where she could look out into the gardens I had created. I picked her flowers to bring inside when she was too frail to leave the bed and we remembered those garden stories together. It was a very big piece of my life as a young 15-year-old girl.
We all have flower stories, a smell, a bloom, a garden memory that we carry fondly. And I feel honored that my story has come full circle in a way that allows me to give back. Our Love Conquers All bouquet is a beautiful representation of those garden memories and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Cancer Support Community- a loving caring group that provides resources to the families of those affected by cancer. Enjoy the flowers, recall the memories, and help provide loving support all with the Love Conquers All Bouquet.
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