Heirloom Flowers, Family Traditions

I come from a long line of green thumbs.  Both of my grandmothers were gardeners, each specializing in their own specific flowers and my mother is also an avid gardener, both with flowers and vegetables.  I developed my love of flowers as a young 4-Her.  I had quickly learned that I had an eye for floral design both in arrangements and in the garden and I loved to grow my flowers.  I rose to the challenge of flower gardening through the 4-H project and that project evolved into my own personal garden which mom let me design and plant.  Every where I have lived and farmed since those early years, I took my flowers with me.

My Grandma S had the most beautiful peonies and roses on my home farm.  Those roses could withstand the harshest of Minnesota winters and the peonies would make Grandma S smile every time that she visited the farm in the late spring.  I took some transplants of those roses with me when I got married and moved to our farm, I wanted that piece of Grandma S with me and now that she is gone I smiled with a tear in my eye, every summer when they bloom.  I know that is Grandma S smiling down on me. 

Grandma D had these glorious irises that she planted all over her home site.  Those beautiful flowers came in pretty colors of purple, rust, yellow, pink, peach and white.  I also took a transplant of these flowers with me when I moved, first from Grandma D's garden and then from Mom's garden.  Grandma D also had a long fence line down her driveway.  There she planted these beautiful dahlias and gladioli!  These flowers quickly became my favorite flowers to grow for 4-H county fair shows.

Mom had lilies in her gardens.  Gorgeous, dramatic lilies in reds, oranges, yellows and whites.  She taught me to transplant bulbs.  In the spring she had these beautiful tulips of red and yellow in the front of her house.  I believe her love of tulips inspired me to plant tulips at every place that I have ever lived.  I have tried so many colors but my favorites will always be Mom's.

Mom trusted me enough to let me have my own garden. I started my garden with Grandma S's roses and Grandma D's irises.  My inspiration from both grandmothers and mom led me to plant hollyhocks along my dad's pasture fence.  For several years we had beautiful hollyhocks along the whole length of fence by the highway and several sales reps made comments on how pretty it looked.  It took a little weeding to keep the fence line clean and later when I wasn't at the farm anymore, my brother mowed them down.  Mom saved a few seeds and replanted them by the garage.  Some day I hope to plant another fence line of holly hocks on my own dairy.  In the meantime I am in awe of their beauty at my parents' farm and I am thankful for my genetic green thumb and heirloom flowers!

Hollyhocks at my parents' dairy, a legacy from my 4-H years at the farm.

A Time to be Thankful

It's been a little while since I last posted, unfortunately I lost my Grandmother over a week ago, and was busy with the events that came with her passing.  But from the combination of this loss and the coming Holiday, I had some time to reflect on what I am truly thankful for....

In life, we enjoy the presence of some very special people.  People who help develop who we are. not through their directions or orders, but through their example.  My Grandmother was and is still that person in my life.  We hear that "you never know how important a person is until they are gone", but I know that my family was well aware of how important our Grandmother was when she was here.  This Thanksgiving we celebrate without her here, but at the same time we know her spirit is with us.  There are so many moments in my life that Grandma was there.

As a child, she would often babysit me and my siblings.  We looked forward to spending time with her, hearing her stories about cousins from far away, looking at her pictures, enjoying her delicious cookies (she was the best cook I will ever know!) and her hugs.   She would let us play as we wished, and if we accidentally broke something, she would forget it, as she was mostly happy that we were there with her. 

As a dairy farmer's wife, she knew all too well the struggles that would face me as I told her that I was planning to return home to farm with my husband, a few years ago.  She shared so much wisdom about making sure that we always remembered the most important things in life: God and family.  She shared how proud she was of me to be working so hard to produce a wholesome food for the people of the world.  Dairy farming is a noble profession, and she knew that.  I wasn't wasting my college education, I was working to do something great; she knew that.

She had faith and passion for her God.  Grandma was always praying for her kids, grand kids and friends.  If there was something in life we needed help with, we would ask Grandma to pray for us, and she always did.  Just knowing that she was praying offered us so much encouragement and confidence. She attended church almost everyday with my Grandpa.  She enjoyed 63 years of marriage and 92 years of life, surrounded by the people that loved her most.  She stood as a role model for all of us to be humble, modest, honest, prayerful, loving, caring, and responsible.  I can honestly say that there are so many lessons in life that I learned just from looking up to Grandma, and how she would have handled them.  I joked with my sisters last week, that we need to ask ourselves, "What would Grandma Do?" whenever we were challenged in life; hoping to become better people, more like her.  So this Thanksgiving, I am truly thankful to have known a person as wonderful as my Grandmother, she will be missed, but she will also always be with us....God Bless You Grandma!