memorialgarden

Last year towards the end of September I went shopping for mums for our Pregnancy and Infant Loss memorial garden.  Mums bring much needed color to usher in the fall season.  I stopped by a neighborhood Nursery and was astounded by the amount of colors she had!  As stood among the sea of burgundy, orange and bronze colors of the mums, it occurred to me than none of them matched the color of the mood in the memorial garden.  The rich colors were actually weighing hard on my heart –it just didn’t seem appropriate to plant red or burgundy flowers.  It must have shown on my face because the owner walked over and offered her help.  I explained to her about the silent grief of miscarriages, and how we are attempting to give women a safe place to grieve (the memorial garden) and to encourage healing from pregnancy loss by gardening.  By the time I was done, I realized she had tears in her eyes.  She too had been touched by pregnancy loss.  Its always sad for me to see someone else walking in these shoes.  She GAVE me 20 mums for the garden!  She would have donated more but that was all I could fit in my van!!   

This year I decided to read up on the different meaning of the flowers colors.  Turns out that burgundy represents, wealth and prosperity; red – vigor, and passion; and orange – pride and abundant energy.  Maybe that’s why I didn’t pick some of those colors!  Well, that Nursery is out of business and this year I went elsewhere.  I ended up getting mostly white chrysanthemums.  We planted those today and they looked really nice and fresh there- did our hearts some good.  I did add some bronze ones in there to keep some color interest.  Unfortunately last year we lost most of the mums over the winter, this year we will be more careful.  So here are some tips to keep your mums alive over the winter.

1. Don’t cut them back to early
2. Cover the roots with mulch to protect them from the heaving from the freezing and thawing ground (regular mulch and not dead leaves which don’t allow good air circulation). Wait till the ground starts to freeze to do this.

My mums in my small garden have survived a few winters and I have successfully divided them so I have not had to buy mums for a few years.

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