Gardenias

I'm doing a story on the flora in my life and I searched the Internet high and low the other day trying to figure out what kind of flower my paternal grandmother had growing in her yard in East LA. I think they may have been exquisite gardenias, such as the one above. Also in her yard, I remember a tidy Missouri Synod Lutheran collection of roses, purple irises, and Bird of Paradise flowers.

I'm contrasting this with exploding cacophony of flora my maternal grandmother had in her quarter-acre suburban El Monte plot. She had mints and cati, poinsettias and poppies, along with a billion other exotic plants. But the most amazing thing about her garden were the fruit trees, from kumquats to apricots to oranges, limes, pomegranates, and walnuts. For a child, it was a wonderland, rivaling the mystical gardens of Babylon. But best of all, you could eat your way through it too.

In the Toronto winter, there is nothing I miss more.