Sorry it took me so long to read this and do I ever relate. Azaleas are the beautiful flowering plants that conjures memories of my Mother. I’m having these reminders more during the past few years. I savor every one.
I, too have fallen under the spell of white flowering Magnolia. I read a book called "The Brother Gardeners" by Andrea Wulf. I learned that in England in the 1700s there were no flowering trees. British horticulturists could not wait to get their hands on the flowering trees of the new world....especially Magnolias. The old engravings show the white variety with gigantic blossoms. That one was special. When I moved to a warm climate, I had no trouble finding the correct little tree. She has grown to be a real beauty and the fragrance fills our house every year in May. I plan my trips around the blooming season, as I hate to miss each flower.
Dan, I just read an article in The New Yorker about cars, urban sprawl, parking, etc, I am not subscribed so I could not comment. There has to be a way to do an around the corner Möbius strip and layer wrap them I would think. We probably have high school students who could do that math right now. This could very well include parents and grandparents that died from Covid. Hope you are well. I am coming back from Covid positive for the second time in a row. It did feel like a doozie heart flare up with exploding gas, but I am just ornery, I rested in my bed, did very light food, my sense of smell is coming back at last. I read somewhere that creatives, and I used to write and do art, their hearts do not beat, they undulate. So, one would be exhausted but you don’t die and no surgery would be required. Anyway, a Möbius strip for the giant cities. All best!❤️
For me, lilacs take me back home to where I lived growing up. My granny lived with us, which was such a blessing. Her wisdom and quiet faith strengthened me greatly. I loved both parents dearly, but they worked and were often busy doing the daily chores at home plus working outside of the home. Granny truly had a green thumb! She grew a wide variety of flowers, and helped with the vegetable garden. There were two lilac bushes growing on the bank between our property and the neighbors. The lilacs were transplanted from my grandmother's home, which made them even more special. In the spring when the lilacs bloomed, I loved to stand beneath the bushes and just take in their sweet fragrance. To this day, when the lilacs in my yard(transplanted from home) bloom for a short while in springtime, I can almost imagine I am that little girl again for just awhile. Oh, to be blessed with such wonderful memories! Blessings to all!
The smell of gardenias does the same for me. When I was a child, my grandparents had gardenia bushes surrounding their house. With no A/C back then, all windows were opened and the house filled with the smell of gardenias. Many, many years later, when I smell gardenias, I am a little girl in that house, one of my happy places.
Yes indeed! Having just taken a walk around Evanston, IL and enjoyed the flowering trees, as well as the ginkgo trees with their tiny baby (but characteristic) leaves, I really appreciate your post. xox
In my family it was my father who loved magnolias. I have vivid memories of driving from my childhood home in the hills of Maryland to the beach in Ocean City where we had a small cottage. You can imagine how anxious I was to get there! Since we always traveled back roads for part of our journey, we invariably went through a wooded area of lower Delaware. In those days there was no AC, so the windows were wide open and as soon as the scent of wild magnolias entered our car, Daddy put his foot on the brakes and pulled off the edge of that two-lane road. Amidst my moans and groans, he'd jump out of the car and trudge through the woods.
Minutes later he'd arrive back at the car with what could only be described as a gigantic bouquet of magnolia blossoms. The scent was so sweet and magical that all I could do was breathe it in and revel in the delight it brought me. To this day I feel that same delight whenever I'm lucky enough to be near magnolia blossoms and I'm taken back to those woods and the memories of my childhood.
Years ago, I worked at Seton Medical Center in Austin. I came up Mopac from SW Austin and vividly remember a neighborhood near the hospital with beautiful, large Magnolia trees like your description. Thanks for the reminder.
The olfactory being closest to the brain smell actually IS the most emotional of the senses. These are precious memories and that you share them is pure joy. Thank you for bringing a warm smile to my face!
Smell memory is strong due to the number of genes related to sensing smells. Babies learn to recognize the smell of their mothers' milk. Memories of a traumatic event are brought to the forefront by a smell encountered during the event. Many human smell genes become inactivated during development. Our increasing reliance on sight diminishes the effect of our loss of smell gene expression. We may start life with a similar number of working smell genes as that of a mouse, about 1500. Survival depends on a human baby's ability to recognize the smell of milk and seek its source. Humans have fewer offspring and devote much more energy to parenting than a mouse. In human development, most smell genes become inactivated leaving the adult with about 400 working olfactory genes.The survival of mice depends heavily on their sense of smell, so their smell genes continue expression. How many human smell genes are inactivated varies. I have always guessed that people who are gifted with a stronger sense of smell, or number of working olfactory genes, can excell as chefs, perfumers, and sommeliers, to name a few professions.
Making long term memories is about repeated experiences and associations.
Dan, your association of the smell of magnolias with your mother is powerful and must be comforting. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Dan, for this steadying post about how important floral scents are to you.
I have two favorite springtime scents: that of my historic Iris germanic 'alcazar', which has a delicate aroma that greets me when I step down from my front porch, and the first (and subsequent) flowering of my 'fragrant cloud' rose, whose fragrance brings me back to my wanderings in the famous rose garden in Elizabeth Park in West Hartford, Connecticut (https://elizabethparkct.org/garden/rose-garden) back in the '50s.
I also loved our very big lilac bush back then and to this day miss the aroma of northern lilacs. I have a small lilac bush here in metro Atlanta, but the scent is different. Not unpleasant, but not familiar.
And, of course, there is the heady fragrance of the 'peace' rose, which grew beneath my bedroom window in Connecticut, whose garden was preciously tended to by my mother. It is her garden, with flowers from early spring to late fall, that I have used as a guide to my current one here, on a third of an acre, which has been certified by Georgia Audubon as a wildlife sanctuary.
Yes, scents of flowers (and also of food) do bring back cherished memories.
Sorry it took me so long to read this and do I ever relate. Azaleas are the beautiful flowering plants that conjures memories of my Mother. I’m having these reminders more during the past few years. I savor every one.
I, too have fallen under the spell of white flowering Magnolia. I read a book called "The Brother Gardeners" by Andrea Wulf. I learned that in England in the 1700s there were no flowering trees. British horticulturists could not wait to get their hands on the flowering trees of the new world....especially Magnolias. The old engravings show the white variety with gigantic blossoms. That one was special. When I moved to a warm climate, I had no trouble finding the correct little tree. She has grown to be a real beauty and the fragrance fills our house every year in May. I plan my trips around the blooming season, as I hate to miss each flower.
Dan, I just read an article in The New Yorker about cars, urban sprawl, parking, etc, I am not subscribed so I could not comment. There has to be a way to do an around the corner Möbius strip and layer wrap them I would think. We probably have high school students who could do that math right now. This could very well include parents and grandparents that died from Covid. Hope you are well. I am coming back from Covid positive for the second time in a row. It did feel like a doozie heart flare up with exploding gas, but I am just ornery, I rested in my bed, did very light food, my sense of smell is coming back at last. I read somewhere that creatives, and I used to write and do art, their hearts do not beat, they undulate. So, one would be exhausted but you don’t die and no surgery would be required. Anyway, a Möbius strip for the giant cities. All best!❤️
So insightful and helpful.
For me, lilacs take me back home to where I lived growing up. My granny lived with us, which was such a blessing. Her wisdom and quiet faith strengthened me greatly. I loved both parents dearly, but they worked and were often busy doing the daily chores at home plus working outside of the home. Granny truly had a green thumb! She grew a wide variety of flowers, and helped with the vegetable garden. There were two lilac bushes growing on the bank between our property and the neighbors. The lilacs were transplanted from my grandmother's home, which made them even more special. In the spring when the lilacs bloomed, I loved to stand beneath the bushes and just take in their sweet fragrance. To this day, when the lilacs in my yard(transplanted from home) bloom for a short while in springtime, I can almost imagine I am that little girl again for just awhile. Oh, to be blessed with such wonderful memories! Blessings to all!
Such a lovely, heart-touching piece—thank you!
The smell of gardenias does the same for me. When I was a child, my grandparents had gardenia bushes surrounding their house. With no A/C back then, all windows were opened and the house filled with the smell of gardenias. Many, many years later, when I smell gardenias, I am a little girl in that house, one of my happy places.
Beautiful memories thank you Mr Rather. You placed me right in the heart of East Texas surrounded by luscious magnolias as a child.
Yes indeed! Having just taken a walk around Evanston, IL and enjoyed the flowering trees, as well as the ginkgo trees with their tiny baby (but characteristic) leaves, I really appreciate your post. xox
In my family it was my father who loved magnolias. I have vivid memories of driving from my childhood home in the hills of Maryland to the beach in Ocean City where we had a small cottage. You can imagine how anxious I was to get there! Since we always traveled back roads for part of our journey, we invariably went through a wooded area of lower Delaware. In those days there was no AC, so the windows were wide open and as soon as the scent of wild magnolias entered our car, Daddy put his foot on the brakes and pulled off the edge of that two-lane road. Amidst my moans and groans, he'd jump out of the car and trudge through the woods.
Minutes later he'd arrive back at the car with what could only be described as a gigantic bouquet of magnolia blossoms. The scent was so sweet and magical that all I could do was breathe it in and revel in the delight it brought me. To this day I feel that same delight whenever I'm lucky enough to be near magnolia blossoms and I'm taken back to those woods and the memories of my childhood.
simply...thank you.
Years ago, I worked at Seton Medical Center in Austin. I came up Mopac from SW Austin and vividly remember a neighborhood near the hospital with beautiful, large Magnolia trees like your description. Thanks for the reminder.
The olfactory being closest to the brain smell actually IS the most emotional of the senses. These are precious memories and that you share them is pure joy. Thank you for bringing a warm smile to my face!
Smell memory is strong due to the number of genes related to sensing smells. Babies learn to recognize the smell of their mothers' milk. Memories of a traumatic event are brought to the forefront by a smell encountered during the event. Many human smell genes become inactivated during development. Our increasing reliance on sight diminishes the effect of our loss of smell gene expression. We may start life with a similar number of working smell genes as that of a mouse, about 1500. Survival depends on a human baby's ability to recognize the smell of milk and seek its source. Humans have fewer offspring and devote much more energy to parenting than a mouse. In human development, most smell genes become inactivated leaving the adult with about 400 working olfactory genes.The survival of mice depends heavily on their sense of smell, so their smell genes continue expression. How many human smell genes are inactivated varies. I have always guessed that people who are gifted with a stronger sense of smell, or number of working olfactory genes, can excell as chefs, perfumers, and sommeliers, to name a few professions.
Making long term memories is about repeated experiences and associations.
Dan, your association of the smell of magnolias with your mother is powerful and must be comforting. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Dan, for this steadying post about how important floral scents are to you.
I have two favorite springtime scents: that of my historic Iris germanic 'alcazar', which has a delicate aroma that greets me when I step down from my front porch, and the first (and subsequent) flowering of my 'fragrant cloud' rose, whose fragrance brings me back to my wanderings in the famous rose garden in Elizabeth Park in West Hartford, Connecticut (https://elizabethparkct.org/garden/rose-garden) back in the '50s.
I also loved our very big lilac bush back then and to this day miss the aroma of northern lilacs. I have a small lilac bush here in metro Atlanta, but the scent is different. Not unpleasant, but not familiar.
And, of course, there is the heady fragrance of the 'peace' rose, which grew beneath my bedroom window in Connecticut, whose garden was preciously tended to by my mother. It is her garden, with flowers from early spring to late fall, that I have used as a guide to my current one here, on a third of an acre, which has been certified by Georgia Audubon as a wildlife sanctuary.
Yes, scents of flowers (and also of food) do bring back cherished memories.
Thanks for sharing this beautiful sentiment. I think you are correct that stories like these help balance the seriousness of our news lately.