Botanical Heritage

This time of year I tend to reflect on the "gift" that keeps on giving. A "pass it on gifting" which I have continued with family and extended to friends.

The beauty of my old-timey snowball bush takes me back. Back to the "heritage" books of Margaret Louise Hooper, "my" Mama Davenport, who brought a snowball bush with her when she left the Hooper homeplace between Guthrie, Ky & Hampton Station, TN, (memory blurs exact location). It took root in her own yard on the Davenport property/farm in Montgomery, TN---a part of Hampton Station community. From there a cutting was taken to South Second Street in Clarksville, TN---not far from Davenport's Grocery on Commerce St. at 3rd, as I recall.

From there, a cutting went back to Kentucky to Mother and Daddy's house at 2211 South Virginia. A new cutting was started the year each of my brothers and I were born. A cutting from my bush came to Memphis with  me and I plan to keep sharing it when each of my kids have a place to grow it. Meanwhile, friends and neighbors share a part of my botanical heritage.

SABBATH SNAPSHOTS: MOSTLY WHITE

5/5/13 Mother loved white flowers---a look of peace and serenity to her. Her urns on the front steps had white geraniums and her viburnum down the side were filled with those large showy white snowballs from her mama's childhood home. Mother planted snowball bushes from "Mama" Davenport's original bushes for each of her three children. I have done the same for my three by simply burying a blooming snowball while still attached to the tree and allowing it to root. So...the heritage continues. Heirloom snowballs for inside and out.