Sunday, May 6, 2012

The iris garden

This past Wednesday, I visited Avoca, an American Queen Anne-style home in Altavista, to take photos for the paper of area school children taking part in educational activities to learn more about history.
As I was walking the grounds, I photographed some of the plants in the well-kept flowerbeds.
One group of flowers I especially wanted to photograph was a bed of deep purple irises.

A bed of irises at Avoca.
The iris is my favorite flower. Whenever I see an iris or think about them, I think of a relative of mine and wonder if she is the reason it’s my favorite.
My father’s Aunt Ida, my great-aunt, lived right up the road from us when I was growing up in rural Virginia. She was a younger sister of my paternal grandmother.
My grandmother died when I was four years old, so I have few memories of her. But I have many good memories of time spent with Aunt Ida and her husband Uncle Othar.
I often stayed with them if my brother or someone in my family was in the hospital, and I always felt safe with them.
Aunt Ida treated me like I imagined a kindly and doting grandmother would. I realize now that she really was a surrogate grandmother to me.
Aunt Ida loved plants, and they flourished with her green thumb. But the flowers I loved the most were her irises. She had an entire garden of them at the end of her lawn.
Rows of irises in every imaginable color grew straight and healthy and produced the beautiful petals that looked too fragile to hold their lovely shape.
Sometimes in the evening, my mother and I visited Aunt Ida to see her flowers. The three of us walked up and down her rows of irises.
Each flower was beautiful. Each one, whether white, yellow, gold, purple or lavender, brought us to a stand still so that we could peer more closely and enjoy the delicacy of the bloom.
Then while my mother and Aunt Ida talked, I went back and looked at my very favorites. Purple was my favorite color, so I naturally gravitated towards those blooms.
The petals looked like velvet, and when I reached out and lightly touched them, they felt like velvet.
I stared at each bloom, trying to enjoy it as much as possible. Blooming time was precious.
Springtime flowers are still precious to me, as well as a comfort. So are memories of my Aunt Ida, who took care of me when I needed someone.

Did you have a relative who had a particularly positive influence on you as you were growing up? What kind of influence did he or she have on you?

27 comments:

  1. Oh how I long for those days again! I miss Grandma Ida so much! I remember many days walking through her iris garden and also picking cherries off of the cherry tree next to her iris garden. I would love to go back even for just one day to feel her hugs and kisses. Thank you Tina for writing about Grandma and her iris'! She is still missed so much!

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    1. Wendy, I think of Aunt Ida very often. She always stayed so busy, but always had time to do something for someone else. She loved her grandchildren and great-grandchildren so much. I, too, would love to go back and tell her how much she meant to me.

      Thank you so much for your comment!

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  2. What a beautiful story. :) My closest relative (other than my parents) that had a huge intact on my life was my maternal grandmother. She was the one that took care of me while my parents were working and eventually towards the end of her life she moved in with us. I miss her dearly. Some therapists believe her death is what triggered my OCD. All I know is I have so many great memories of her. We used to love sitting outside under her pecan trees. I would pick them up and take them to her so we could crack them and she could bake with them. I also used to love catching fireflies in an old mason jar in her backyard on warm summer nights. I miss her so much. I would give anything just to spend 5 more minutes with her again.

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    1. What beautiful memories you have of your grandmother! The people who take care of us lovingly when we are young are the ones we have the best memories of, I think.

      I remember catching fireflies too--we called them lightening bugs.

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  3. I think my grandmother had the most influence on me, for she was the kindest human being that I have ever known. I have tried to carry on that legacy the best that I can.

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    1. Keith, from what I can tell, you are carrying on her legacy of kindness in a wonderful way!

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  4. You have reminded me why I love morning glories. My Grandpa grew them and used to pick them for me.

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    1. I love morning glories, too! But on the farm, where they grew on their own, they were considered "weeds." Still beautiful though!

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  5. It's interesting that so many of us connect flowers with our grandparents. I think that generation was more in tune with nature than we are now and also didn't have our current electronic distractions. My grandmother's love of nature, and the time she took to enjoy it, made an impact on me. Mr favorite flowers are lilacs, because she had beautiful ones in her front yard, and they were her favorite as well. The smell of them, every spring, brings me back to my grandmother.

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    1. Janet, You make such an excellent point. That generation were more in tune with nature and took the time to appreciate and enjoy it.

      I love the smell of lilacs. What a lovely memory you have!

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  6. Purple is my favorite color and purple irises are one of my favorite flowers ever!

    What a beautiful memory. I'm glad you had someone in your life like that. How precious.

    Beautiful picture by the way.

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    1. Thank you, Sunny. Another thing we have in common--purple!

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  7. This is a beautiful memory, You paint such a picture I can almost see you gently looking at the flowers with such awe!

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  8. After seeing everyone iris pictures this spring, I definitely need to plant some in the future. They're so beautiful!

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    1. Lisa, I don't have any myself. I never think to plant bulbs in the fall. I guess I don't have a very green thumb! But I, too, plan to plant some this fall, and some tulips too!

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  9. Great post. Purple irises are my fave, too, though I don't know why. They just grew everywhere in Illinois in the spring when I was growing up.

    I had two wonderful grandmothers, both of whom stayed with me until I was in my mid-40s. Both of them still influence me today, and I think of them often.

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  10. Nadine, How blessed you were that both grandmothers were so important to you! I've always wondered about my grandmother who died when I was 4, wondered what type of relationship we would have had, wondered what she was really like, etc. Unfortunately, I wasn't close to my other grandmother. But other relatives were surrogates!

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  11. My mother and grandmother both had a peony garden, and I've just planted some peonies myself. The smell takes me home. Lovely post, Tina!

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    1. Thank you, Jean, I appreciate it! Isn't it amazing how smells can bring out the memories and put us in a different place?

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  12. My Grandmother influenced me greatly by her hard work and dedication, kindness and love of the Lord as well as her intelligence and she was a teacher; imagine that! I love the purple irises as well....one of my favorite flowers!

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    1. Tracy, it sounds like you take after your grandmother in more ways than being a teacher! You have all those qualities yourself. :-)

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  13. My grandmother..my next post will be about her. She was my Aunt Ida..everybody needs one of those people don't you think?
    I have a ton of flower beds and the one in the back yard is full of purple irises ..I love them so much, just wish they lasted longer.

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    1. Krystal, I look forward to your post!

      They don't last long, but I guess that's part of the beauty--we cherish it a little more because it soon goes away for another year.

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  14. Those siberian irises are growing right under my window as we speak :) Love me some irises. My mom was the one who instilled a love for gardening and nature in general in my life.

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    1. Elissa, I didn't know what type of irises they were. Thanks for giving me a name. It's wonderful when we have relatives and family who get us started early with learning about and enjoying nature.

      Thank you for stopping by!

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