The Gardenia Story

"The Gardenia" ©Mary Montague Sikes

Years ago, when I was in high school, my boyfriend (now husband) brought me a beautiful bright white gardenia blossom that he plucked from his mother's flowering bush. Of course, I loved it. So did my mother who later took the then fading flower and worked to root it. That root eventually grew into a new gardenia bush in my parents' yard.

A few years later, Mother brought me some fresh gardenia flowers she had cut from her bush. Although I definitely have a brown thumb, I was successful in rooting one of those flower cuttings which eventually grew into the huge gardenia bush that now lives by our back door.

When spring comes and blossoms fill our bush, I think of both of our mothers. From one special little

©Mary Montague Sikes

gift, many flowers have blossomed. Perhaps eventually more bushes will flower from cuttings grown in other gardens.

That is the gardenia story.