Happy Mother's Day

One of my favorite things from "farm" to table, are flowers.  I love to bring fresh cut flowers inside to enjoy.  Most of my flowers come  from my  garden rather than from local farmers, but I still wander down to the Farmer's Market occasionally to purchase a few extras.

My love of flowering plants was fostered at a young age by my mother and grandmother.  My mother would drag us all outside each year to see the first snowdrop peaking out from the snow.  My grandmother always brought huge bouquets of whatever flowers were currently blooming in her yard.  Our house would be filled with color and fragrance.


I am sharing my love of flowers with the children.   

Our study of spring flowers actually started when there was still snow on the ground.  I brought in aconites and snow drops.  These were the first flowers in the children's "Spring Flowers Journals".  The children sketch the flowers, and then label them with the common and scientific names.  

Some of the flowers we pressed and later added to the journal.

It has been very rewarding for me to hear the children excitedly identify plants they know as they pass the flower beds at County Farm park.

The last couple weeks the class has been transplanting plants from my garden, into the schools flower beds.  Sharing my plants with others is also a bit of a family tradition.  Many of the flowers in my yard come from plants my mother's and grandmother's gardens.  These plants have been divided up and  are in many of my friend's gardens and now at Summers-Knoll.  Hopefully, the children will be able to watch the flowers they planted reappear for many years to come. 

The children also decorated pots and filled them with forget-me-nots to give to their mothers on mother's day.  (Note to mothers: if you have a garden, the forget-me-nots can be planted outside and they will reseed themselves for next year.)

I hope all Mothers had a lovely Mother's Day.  

(A special thank you to my mother and, in memory of, my grandmother Neelands, for sharing the joy of gardening with me.)