Flowers in a garden that evoke fond memories from childhood

What a lovely question OP.
I remember the horse chestnut tree by my dad’s garage, where my friend and I made our secret den, blossom time was when we’d go up there first each spring. We had a lovely deep red peony, a bright purple geranium with pretty leaves, and a rose which had tonal petals in shades of apricot and pink, what a clash of colours it was in retrospect, but I loved flowers even then.

My Mum loved her flower garden, my Dad grew vegetables. Roses and fuchsias remind me of my Mum, no greenfly were allowed to land. She also loved freesia but never grew them, my memory is of the perfume being so much better back then. Mum and Dad tended their gardens with far more commitment than I offer to mine now. Never a weed to be seen. My earliest garden memory is eating a strawberry from my Nan’s garden, there is a photo of the two of us standing in the midst of the plants also one of me with a strawberry in hand and a very guilty expression. Many happy garden memories.

Lupins remind me of my mum. I remember running my hand over the velvety flower spikes - they were taller than I was - and thinking that they were wonderful .

Cowslips - just love them. Wallflowers and sweet peas and pansies.

But always night scented stocks. I currently have a big pot of small seedlings ready for transplanting. I do that so I can spread them around the garden in small pots. I buy the seeds every year just for the perfume to remind me of my Mum's summer garden and of every garden I've had.

The perfume and the noise of the bees in the tops of two massive Lime trees. That was the noise of summer to me.

The only photo I have of me with my Gran - who died young - was taken when I was 3. She and I were sitting on a rug on the lawn and she was feeding me a strawberry! It's not just the photo, I can remember the taste of the strawberry and my Mum standing with her Kodak Box Brownie trying to get the sun over her shoulder and us both in the frame!

We used to love picking primroses from the hedgerows many years ago, and bluebells too.
Ah yes, primroses and bluebells were my favourite woodland flowers. Back in the 1950s we thought nothing of picking them as there were so many!
But my Welsh woodland favourites were actually leafy green ferns and moss covered stones growing by streams, because there be fairy gardens.

I don't think my mother knew a whole lot about gardening, but every year she planted bright red geraniums (pelargonium) along the front porch. It did look stunning from the street, but I don't like the smell of them when requested to dead-head.

I'm fond of pussy-willow; every spring we would cut some branches from a shrub and deliver them to our elderly neighbours (sisters that lived next to one another), and mum would replace the ones from the previous year in a large vase in the dining room.

Reading all your stories jobs another memory of my uncle growing dahlias of every colour and shape in his front garden. He would give my Mum a bunch to take home after we had visited for tea and cakes, and she always left them outside until all the earwigs had gone!

Jogs not jobs ! Predictive text again☹️

This is a beautiful thread, thank you Bakingmad

What a lovely thread
I still have Lily of the Valley that my Grandmother and Mother planted when they moved into this house in 1934

London's Pride.
I was fascinated by the tiny little pastel dots on the petals.
It grew around our Owls' aviary (I get the owls in any chance that I'm given!)
I haven't seen any since I was a nipper in the 70s. I'd absolutely love to get some now

I have a patch of London Pride in my rockery wall. I begged a few plants from my niece some years ago, whose paternal granny used to grow it. It was she who fostered my interest in gardening as a child, and lent me her garden tools to cultivate our pocket handkerchief patch. It reminds me of her.

I haven’t been able to establish lily of the valley in my garden. There’s an old saying that it’s unlucky to buy them, you should be given plants from a friend or family so I’ve had to rely on being given them. Not that I’m superstitious or anything. ? ?

Does anyone else remember the baskets of primroses we were given to give to our mothers on Mothering Sunday? They were square, woven from twigs, and had a hoop handle. Inside was filled with moss and primroses. They were just so pretty.

Lilac and dahlias remind me of my Mum. She would pick a bunch of both for my siblings and I to take to school for the teachers.
I have never been able to grow dahlias with the same success as my Mum, they were truly amazing every year. Oh how I miss Mum ?

H1954, you never stop missing your Mum, do you?
My parents always had a cottage style garden, and I just loved the blue cornflowers, the lupins and the snapdragons. Oh, and the old fashioned marigolds. Dad spent hours in the garden, and grew veg. too, spinach, kale, runner beans etc.
It seems so long ago.......

Lovely thread Bakingmad0203, thank you!

Daisies and hawthorn blossom remind me of the fields where we lived. It's all houses there now, but I have daisies in our lawn, and I'm waiting for our hawthorns to blossom.

Bluebells remind me of the orchard garden of a friend's house, gathering bunches to fill jam jars.

Sweet William and London Pride remind me of my Granny's back garden. I can't grow them as well as she did, but I do try!

Sweet Peas for my dad, he loved the fragrance, and grew them for mum every year.

I hope some of the flowers in my garden will remind my children of me in years to come. My daughter has eventually caught the gardening bug, now she has a garden of her own to play in! x

My Dad, Albert, grew roses in our council house garden in the 1950's. There was a competition in a Sunday paper for the best bloom, so he packed a rose bud ("Virgo") in a parcel and sent it off. The post must have been reliable in those days, as he won second prize, a pair of secateurs. I now live in Cornwall where it is difficult to grow roses really well because of the acid soil, but I have "Albertine" in my Dad's memory in my garden and it is thriving.

We lived with my grandparents during the war years and grandpa was a keen gardener mostly vegetables (Dig for Victory!)
When he retired he had a big garden with more flowers - I remember one called phlox , scented stocks. (mentioned by someone else.)

Lupins, their lovely peppery smell.

Night scented stock - going into the garden at night a the smell - glorious.

Grandad allowed my a garden of my own and I used to sow a mixture of annual. I’ve never ever had such success since.

Why can’t I grow NSS???

The scent of lilac reminds me of my gran, I always plant loads of bushes wherever we live, primroses take me straight back to long walks with my dad, and sweet peas, the most perfect scent.

Sara speaking of lilac - my Nan & Grandad had a beautiful lilac tree.
My favourite Summer pastime was to sit on top of the step ladder that Grandad had put right under the lilac tree, so that I was in the middle of the top of the tree.
It's lovely to really immerse yourself in trees

Fanny
My gran had one just outside the back door, and I remember my cousin and I, sitting under the lilac, making perfume, which meant putting the tiny lilac flowers in bottles of water. Smelled ghastly, but my gran always said it was lovely, and dabbed a bit on!

Snap dragons at my grandparents for me too. Have planted some for my grandchildren and can't what to show them how to pinch the flowers to open their 'mouths'.

Dog roses ( wild).