Memories Mary Hillhouse Flower Garden

My mother, Mary Hillhouse is turning 90 years old in April.  Within the last 4 years, she has had hip and shoulder surgery and her planting days are gone.  She no longer can work in her yard and tend to her flowers.  Most of them are now gone due to the lack of love and care she showered on them for forty years.  Many of these flowers were from her mother's cuttings Eloise McArthur Hillhouse as well as friends through the years.  I didn't appreciate their splendor and beauty as I should have.  They are now memories of times past.  A time of country flower gardens that southern women like her and her mother and mother's mother generations loved to have in the spring living on the country roads of Cherokee County.  I am grateful I have photographs of those precious flowers that will forever linger in my memory of my mom.

Georgian Country Flowers

 

Each year, I like to post pictures of Mary's flowers.  She is now 87 years old and still tries to nurture and care for flowers that were past down to her from her mother Eloise McArthur.  Some of these plants are over 100 years old.  I love the country charm of the old wooden fence and flowers growing out of concrete blocks.  The bottom picture will someday be a oil painting hanging on my bedroom wall.

Mary's Summer Flowers 2014

As long as my mother is able to grow flowers in her yard, I will celebrate their beauty on this blog. She is 86 years old and has shown incredible strength through many sorrows this year.  The beauty of these flowers can't compare to the beauty of her inner spirit.

Solomon in All His Glory was not Arrayed Like One of These

A canter from Mary Hillhouse's flower garden.  Seeds were given to her from her mother 50 years ago.  A living family heirloom. 

Pretty Boy Among the Flowers

Ladies love to show thier garden flowers and grandma Brown is no different.  Here is an assortment of her spring flowers with her beloved "Pretty Boy" napping among the flowers.