Tuesday 19 May 2015

Sweet Williams


This post is for my mother, Maggie.  Two years ago, my father brought over a spice jar full of seeds collected from their small plot in Sturminster Newton.  I scattered them in our village garden and waited - and waited. Nothing much happened except for a few plants that grew an inch or two and then stopped and sat still, neither growing taller nor dying off.  I'd just about given up on them and was bemoaning my lack of green fingers when I had a lovely surprise.  We moved back to the village last week and were greeted with a patch of beautiful Sweet Williams.  Now that Dad is no longer with us and Mum yesterday signed on the dotted line to sell the Dorset house, it's up to me to collect the seeds and keep this dynasty of English flowers blooming in Turkey.

19 comments:

  1. Sweet Williams indeed. A lovely story.

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  2. Such a gorgeous, special flower and beautiful way to remember your dad, loved it : )

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  3. B to B, I love these flowers so much. It made me miss the Sweet Williams I used to have in our garden in Cambridge. How wonderful that they took so well here to remind you of your beloved father.

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    1. If I successfully collect seeds this year I'll send you some.

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  4. Lovely! Sweet Williams were a favourite of my Dad's and his garden was always full of them so your post has brought back happy memories for me too x

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    1. They are an "old fashioned flower" aren't they, and so lovely.

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  5. We call it "Hüsn-ü Yusuf" in Turkey. That means "The Beauty of Josef"...

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    1. Thanks. Levent. I wondered what they are called here.

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  6. . . all attempts to import seeds from UK have failed apart from a conker (Horse chestnut) that my grandson gave us as a house-warmer. We put it in a pot and forgot about it. 18 months later we noticed a shoot and began to nurture it. Today it stands proud at eight feet of 'determined-to-succeed-in-an-alien-environment' vigor.

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    1. Me too usually Alan, which is why I'm so pleased these have taken.

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  7. What a sweet story! A fabulous way to keep the memories going!

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  8. Replies
    1. Walked past your ex garden yesterday and the gate was open - it still looks fabulous

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  9. Aww, lovely story and so glad they've grown. We're anything but green fingered!

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    1. I try, but only have one or two green fingers, the others are brown.

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  10. One of my favourite cottage garden flowers and even lovelier with such special significance attached.

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