Grandmother's Garden

[canesisters]

@seedcorn 's thread about 4'oclocks got me thinking, what are some flowers that were common in yards a generation or two ago that are seldom seen now?

 

[ducks4you]

Larkspur? I heard that on a recent gardening program, and the comments were that we all mulch today, which our grandmother's didn't, there the laskspur and some other flowers that need not so good soil, don't drop their seeds for the next year, and we have to keep buying them to enjoy the flowers. Anybody else hear that?https://www.gardeningchannel.com/how-to-grow-larkspur-flowers/

 

[Nyboy]

The grandmother who gardened was very frugal, she only planted hardy things that did not need babying. Decades later some are still alive at her old home. She planted things like Rose of Sharon, Peony, Bleeding heart and lily of the valley. All plants still found in many gardens today.

 

[digitS']

One of my memories is looking up into foxglove flowers.

I'm kind of a tall guy but ... okay, I was just a youngster. We moved to live on my grandmother's little farm when I was 3. We moved away before I turned 5.

Really, all flowers look old-fashioned to me. It's because I associate them with my memories of Grandma's big flower gardens! Mom wasn't very interested in yards and gardening. When I visited the garden Grandma had before she moved and I joined her at 3, there were still hollyhocks growing in a v-shaped Victory garden. I was told that no one had lived in that home on BC's Fraser River after my grandfather died, 15 years previous. I was about 30 years old before I had anything to do with growing flowers.

Steve
A neighbor who was in her 80's, 25 years ago -- had a garden full of volunteer petunias every year.