they are special because of where they came from: friends and family. When we moved out of our house in Columbia in 2003 I told the new owners I would be back to dig up some of my perennials once I had a garden to move them into. Well, it took longer than we expected to build this new house but when we moved in in Fall 2005 I knew that the spring of 2006 would be time to return for the plants I'd left behind.
Lilies of the valley were one of those plants. These had come from the garden of Dan's grandfather Huffman in Franconia, Virginia. There was no way I was leaving them behind when we moved. When I dug them up finally that spring I got black eyed susans too so now this bed of lilies of the valley is also a very large bed of black eyed susans. I planted them on the north side of the house because that's where they were at the old house. They are not as lush as they once were in their old location so I've since taken some transplants to the pond garden and know they will spread there.
My other clump of lilies of the valley came from our former pastor. She offered these after we had moved in. These bloom first and seem to be growing better on the west side of the house outside Dan's study. They bloom first so I pick from them to bring the fragrance into the house.
Finally the trees are almost fully in leaf. The last are the beech which have lost the brown fall leaves and are now opening new ones. This is the view from Dan's study door with the last blooms of the dogwood against the new green of the woods. It's a blue sky day after many days of much needed rain!
