Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Rosemary and Me

It started many years ago; I spied her sitting shyly in the corner at a garden shop in Shipshewana. She stood with limbs reaching out to me, begging me to give her a home. I picked up the plastic pot and placed it in a flat with other herbs and flowers. Together we drove back home with me breathing in her scent as the car whizzed passed farms and fields.

I gave her a home in a new pot, a fine terra cotta one, large enough for her to stretch and put down roots. I fed and sheltered her and she responded by growing and growing. Like the tree in Shel Silverstein’s book, The Giving Tree, Rosemary kept giving me fragrant sprigs for soups, stews, and grilling. I could almost see her quiver with joy as I snipped a tip here and there. She’d often produce new sprigs and I’d smile.

Fall came in all its vibrancy and frosted mornings. Rosemary stood chilled in her home in the middle of the old wagon wheel herb garden. I brought her in to warm her, but it was too late. My ignorance and the chill of autumn brought about her demise. That winter, I was without Rosemary.

Spring dawns anew and back I went to my favorite shop and found a more grown-up Rosemary enticing me with her piney fragrance. She flourished inside a huge terra cotta pot, anxious to fill the curved bottom. Again, the always-giving Rosemary showered me with sprigs for the kitchen, sprigs for bouquets, and filling my world with the remembrance of all things green and growing. Before leaves turned red, gold, and orange, Rosemary relocated inside the shop. She had grown to massive proportions during the summer and looked like a shrub perched on a large pot.

One day in December, gentle Rosemary gave up her long, needled stems to me. I gathered the bouquet in my hand tying a pink satin ribbon around the stems. I grasped the Rosemary bouquet tightly in my hand as I listened to the soothing words that told of quilts made, children loved, and a husband left behind to carry on. My daughter tenderly placed the beribboned rosemary bouquet next to my mom as I whispered a final good-bye. Rosemary, the herb of rembrance, was my mother’s favorite herb.

Throughout the years, Rosemary took the form of standards, triangular trees reminiscent of Christmas, and potted plants of all sizes. Until life took a turn and Rosemary was relegated to the dusty cobwebs of a former life.


The spring of 2009, I brought home Rosemary, once again. She grew outside all summer, content in her new clay pot. She grew taller and more beautiful. Fall came and it was time to bring in my darling of the plant world. At first, she dropped her needles, missing the sunshine that warmed her from the tips of her roots to the end of the top most tip. The memories of summer kept her fighting, reaching for the light, until one day there it was…new growth on the tip-toppiest sprig. Rosemary cradles babies up and down her branches, delicate green promises growing in the winter sun that shines through the window. And the lady was happy.

16 comments:

  1. Exquisite. Powerful. Straight from the heart. I need some rosemary in my life! I wish I knew where to get some. Right now!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fabulous tribute! I love Rosemary..cannot have garden without it! Or a windowsill! Awesome..

    ReplyDelete
  3. From one Rosemary to another Rosemary hello there and thankyou for visiting my place and leaving a lovely comment. I've never been over here before even tho I see you are on blotanical like myself. Lovely tribute to a Rosemary bush.
    :) Rosie

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mary Jo...everyone should have rosemary in their life...well at least I think so. : )

    Kiki... I totally agree...a garden is not a garden unless rosemary has a place of honor.

    Rosie...thank you for stopping by the Cottage. I thoroughly enjoyed your post. I'll be back for more!

    ReplyDelete
  5. You made me smile. I think I need a Rosemary. Love those smoky blue flowers it has.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ohhh I do, too, Diana! Perhaps rosemary will bloom this summer for me, if I keep encouraging her and singing her praises.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear Teresa, I am so pleased to have discovered you. Thank you so much for visiting my weblog and for leaving a comment, to which I have replied.

    Rosemary is certainly a herb not to be without. A friend has a large bush close to her kitchen door which is convenient for her culinary needs and provides the most wonderful scent each time she leaves the house.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you for stopping The Cottage, Edith. I enjoyed your blog, too. I'll be visiting again, soon.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Teresa, I am constantly running outside to get a snip or two as it is one of my favorite herbs.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Welcome to the Cottage on the Corner, Diana. I must winter rosemary over indoors and I'm just so delighted that she's thriving this year. I look foward to running outdoors to cut a few sprigs this summer.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I just enjoyed your story so very much. Rosemary is such a wonderful herb and plant. It is grown here as a groundcover or small shrub and right now tiny blue flowers adorn them. I am so thankful your Rosemary is thriving and that she is lavished with your care :^)

    ReplyDelete
  12. my goodness, this post made me realize not to take my rosemary so much for granted...she is sitting in her new pot lopsided and lonely, windblown, bent....but come next month, or maybe now, she too will have little ones popping out and by summer, she will need a serious haircut...the other big boy-i call him- is in the ground and right now is as lush and green as midsummer....i plan to plant lots more this summer, such a lovely plant is right.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Dear Teresa, please accept my heartfelt sympathy for the loss of your mother. Even if it has been several years, it has been thirty years for me, the pain and loss never leave us. Rosemary is the perfect plant to remember our loved ones. I am so glad you are again growing it. We brought a giant specimen inside for many years at another home, and it was always a delight to set it back outdoors in the spring. Where we now live, it grows in the ground and is a huge shrub. Even if we had to bring it in, we wouldn't be without it. :-)

    Frances

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a lovely story! Thanks for telling us all about Rosemary. I've tried to fall in love with her like so many other gardeners have, but her fragrance just doesn't grab me. Too strong I guess. Now give me lavender or lemon verbena, and I'll sniff all day!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Theresa, What a beautiful writer you are! I have always loved sweet Rosemary but I will never again look at without thinking of your words.I can't pass a Rosemary without plucking a needle and squeezing it's scent between my fingers, it stays with me all day. Jeri

    ReplyDelete

Treasured comments from treasured friends...