Pink Ruffles--the first azalea I ever planted. This one is huge now. Probably 8-9 feet tall and absolutely gorgeous. Pink Ruffles is probably still my all-time favorite for several reasons. The color epitomizes Spring, it grows fairly rapidly, and is always loaded with blooms. I have added several more over the years, maybe 400 or so. Around the house, around the shop, around the pond. Light pinks, dark pinks, fuchsias, whites, reds, even some orange ones I found last year. It sounds a little much, I know, but honestly I still have more space and will add more as I find ones I don't have. Or even ones I do have! What the heck, it's a healthy hobby!
Aunt Lina had this all in her flower beds and Mother and I loved it. It's vibrant blue/purple is gorgeous with all the pinks and yellows of Spring and it's fragrance is heavenly. Of course I dug some and put it out here. As a child Mother did not have set "flower beds." She had "patches". This patch had asparagus and marigolds, that patch over there had Bells of Ireland and red peppers. Then we had the bigger vegetable patch that had zinnias and poppies thrown in but mostly vegetables. As a consequence our woods phlox got dug and transplanted and sometimes forgotten so it never really got to spread out in all it's glory. Eventually I started "beds" and I wanted Aunt Lina's beds. I wanted the lushness of her color and fragrance. I started buying pots of woods phlox wherever I found it, garden centers, catalogs, you name it. It never took off. Sometimes it didn't even make it. This was disturbing to me, I had a green thumb inherited quite honestly from Mother, Aunt Lina, Aunt Sallie, and Daddy. What was my problem? I still had a clump of Aunt Lina's woods phlox, I had kept it alive through years of abuse and neglect. What was the deal? I carefully transplanted it, watched over it like a mother hen. My care taking paid off. Apparently it is an older and much stronger strain of woods phlox because not only did it thrive but it is reseeding all over the pond yard. Now I just dig a clump and put it anywhere and leave it undisturbed and it is going to town! Thank you, Aunt Lina. You babysat me, you let me use your mixer to make mud pies and then actual cakes, you taught me to say PEony instead of peONy because you thought it sounded more genteel [I agree], and you gave me woods phlox. Whenever I asked what you would like for your birthday you would ask me to bring you old composted manure from the barn and I did. Now guess what I would like for My birthday? Genetics. Can't fight them. Wouldn't want to.
My dear mother has fallen and broken her hip--the dreaded broken hip. I so hate it. But as usual she is her cheerful, loving, sweet self. She had partial hip replacement and my fear was that the anesthesia and pain medications would work on her little mind....that she would go through surgery fine but wouldn't know me afterwards. We all decided ahead of time that it was all about her, that it didn't matter if she didn't know us as long as she wasn't in pain or confused and scared. That sounds great in theory but this was my mother. My taproot. My best of the best. I was scared to death. She went through surgery with flying colors, groggy of course and in and out of it until about midnight. She woke up and looked around. I was there at her side holding her hand. She looked at me and I said, "Hey, Momma. Do you know me?" And she said, "Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I?" Oh, the relief. The prayers of thanks. I cry now thinking about it. And so far so good. She is now at a nursing home here that has an excellent rehab. program. I go several times a day and encourage her eating [sometimes she says, " You eat it!"] and our family visits constantly. Now the new fear is that she won't remember she can't walk and will try to get out of bed or her wheelchair and break the other hip. That happened with my father-in-law. But we are very optimistic and the physical therapists think she is doing very well. And such is life. A lot can happen in a matter of seconds so relish every second of life you can. Mother broke her hip. She didn't break her spirit. She didn't break her smile or her sense of humor or her ability to love. I am and will always be totally in awe of her.
