Summer Gardenias and Memories

One summer bouquet leads to another. Our neighbor, Sara surprised me with fresh cuttings from her beautiful gardenia. Thank you! The old fashioned gardenia in our yard died about three years ago. I was advised to get rid of it when I first moved here. I declined and it lived 20 years more. We replaced it with a "Frost Proof" gardenia in 2015. It's still pretty small and has smaller blossoms than my old fashioned one. I grew up with a big gardenia below my bedroom window. I loved to press my nose against the window screen to smell the beautiful scent before going to sleep. This was back in the day, when you could safely sleep with your window open on the first floor and didn't have central air conditioning. That gardenia is still in my mother's yard today. The photo to the left is from my parent's wedding May 31, 1958. My mother gave me a copy of the photo just this week.

Frost Proof Gardenia- The blossoms have started to open.