Memories to Share

WE CAN GROW TREASURED PLANTS TO HONOR THE GARDENERS WHO TAUGHT US

- MARGHERITA FABRIZIO

Marigolds, sweet alyssum and violet-colored bearded iris. These are the garden scents of my childhood that immediately transport me back to my mother's garden. Hydrangeas remind me of my aunt; she grew one that magically bloomed pink, blue and purple all at once. The image of gorgeously pink 'Helen Elizabeth' poppies in a sea of Johnson's Blue' geranium conjures days at my beloved old perennials-nursery job.

This is the way it has always been with plants for me. Whether it's their scent or their blossom, some get forever associated with cherished places or those who adored or shared them. Even in my fortieth year of gardening, I have iris and primula from my childhood.

I know many other gardeners still lovingly nurturing decades-old, treasured plants for these very reasons. We love plants for their flower and foliage, but our connection goes way beyond this. Plants bind us to places and people and to our past.

I met Elisabeth Sheldon in my 30s, and she remained a friend and mentor for decades. Before becoming a gardener and establishing a field-grown perennials nursery in 1978, she was a painter. Her color sensitivity and sense of balance and drama became critical elements in her gardens. She designed her borders in classic blue, pink, purple, pale yellow and white, with a generous sprinkling of gray. She kept her hot palette within a sunny walled space, just off a meandering path adjacent to a luscious woods garden. She and her nursery, Ridge House Garden, where she started plants from British and other seed exchanges, ran far ahead of the big perennial wave that hit the United States in the 1980s and '90s, and her passion and plants helped inspire and educate many who became lifelong gardeners.