My Mother's Gardenen

My mother got sick when I was in the first grade, and I didn't really know her - I mean know her as others knew her - as I grew up.  She was a different person. My earliest memories of her though are in the garden.  She planted a lovely flower garden in our backyard in Floral Park.  We had Blaze climbing roses against the garden and yellow evening primrose, ferns under the dogwood with coral bells too, and several wonderful shrubs.  One of those shrubs that I loved was the Kerria Japonica.

If you're scratching your head and wondering, "What's a Kerria?" I'm not surprised. They're hard to find. I'm not sure why. The nursery I worked for in New York had them, but they were expensive, and online they are tough to find too.  They're related to roses but with yellow flowers. I named ours the "Bee Bush" because bees just loved it.

So when I got a call Saturday morning from my gardening buddy Joan offering me not one but TWO rescued Kerrias from another neighbor's garden, I was thrilled.  Seems like someone wanted to dig up the "nuisances" shrubs and throw them out, but Joan - ever on the lookout for plants for me - snagged them, potted them up, and is acting like the gardening Santa Claus today dropping them off at her friends' houses.

I have Blaze climbing roses growing in the garden now, along with a lovely snowball viburnum and dogwoods, and a little coral bells growing next to the side steps on my porch. Each reminds me of my mother.  But adding those two Kerria to the back garden will finally complete my mother's garden or the plants I have included in memory of her.

(Pictures are not from my garden, alas...they are stock photography)