Kids and Grandmothers and Flowers
The other flower that I distinctly remember from time spent with Mammy https://crookedcreek.live/2019/05/12/kids/ was the peony. The peony is a large bush with lush blossoms in shades of red or pink or pure white. They bloom in May and were always ready for Memorial Day, known as “Decoration Day” out in the country many years ago. It is also worth mentioning that peonies were incorrectly pronounced pee-ON-nies as opposed to PEE-on-nies back in the day.
I would help Mammy cut all the peonies off the bushes and then we would assemble them in bouquets to take to the cemetery at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church. While we walked among the graves of my grandmother’s parents, brothers and friends she would tell me about each one. Often the details included the way they had died as well as the way they lived. We would lay a bouquet of peonies on each grave. My favorite bouquets for Decoration Day were made up of the snow white flowers.
It never occurred to me that one day I’d walk in that same cemetery with my own granddaughter. See Kids 3 coming up.
“Sweet April showers do spring May flowers.” Thomas Tusser
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NOTE: A reader sent this photo to me via email and I wanted to share it with you. It is regarding the last post about hollyhock flower “girls” and the ones in this photo are very similar to the ones I made with my Grandmother. The main difference is that ours wore bonnets. Thank you, Gerri, for the photo that demonstrates what I was trying to convey.
Crooked Creek by Sue Mattingly 
Loved seeing the picture of the hollyhock dolls.
Peonies also remind me of my grandmother Pottinger. We still have some of the red peonies that belonged to my great- grandmother in my brother’s yard.
I loved the beauty of peonies and grew them for a long time. They need cages to hold the flowers up especially in windy, wet weather we have been having.
However one childhood memory is that Grandma would always give us a bouquet in a lard can with water to bring home to Lebanon from Gethsemane. I rode in the middle of the back seat and had to hold the can of peonies. The only problem was there were always ants on the blossoms which got on me. It wasn’t until much later that I learned without these ants, the blossoms do not open all the way (don’t know if this is true of the more modern versions).
My grandparents also said Decoration Day for Memorial Day and always involved a trip to the cemetery.
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I know about the ants but had not heard about their helping with the opening of the buds! Interesting.
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I always knew I missed out not having a Grandmother! Your Blogs just underscored it! Thanks for writing about the Hollyhock girls! We did the same with red “Mohn ” flowers that grow in Wheatfields! (Mohn is Poppy)
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I’m so sorry you didn’t have a Grandmother. Thank you for sharing about the Poppies of your home in Germany.
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Sweet pics! 🙂 Time changes things in unexpected ways!
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