Remembering the Gardenias

Today I took photographs after the rain and was thinking about the love my mother had for gardenas. Now we always pronounced that like it was in Spanish - Gardiñas.

Mother, I remember when you told me you would love to have Gardenas because of their bright white flowers. You and I loved their smell, but you said we could not grow them well in Corpus. You could not get enough iron to their leaves;they yellowed and produced little flowers when they produced anything at all. The plants were in reality ugly, sickly. You certainly tried over and again by adding iron supplements. We have a lot of iron in our soil here. In fact we have an iron clay soil that gets harder than a rock sometimes. I bought these two Gardenas because of your love for them. Now I have two large plants and they bloom over and over in the summer. I love them. Look and see some blooms! I don't know if I ever told you some of these things.

I explained to Maria (my daughter) once that I believe it is important to say what you think and feel. That is an obligation, not an option. The other person deserves to know. You, Mother, instilled that in me. I have known it all my life but not always practiced it. I thought many times it had to be obvious. You never thought your mom loved you but she did. You were insecure in love and I don't blame you, but you were very loved by me, my brother and my sister. These flowers live and thrive; they are for you.