Beyond the South End

Memories of Maine’s Flowers

(All pictures were taken by me except for the last one on the story)

A South End house with window boxes

This blog is a revamp of a spring flower story which appears on the “Being a Southender” CD of 2009. I would like to include summer flowers into this current story and try to tweak the memories of those of you who have moved away. What flowers do you remember from your youth living in Maine?

While these flowers could probably be found in most of the New England states, they always remind me of the beauty and in some cases, the perfume of our most prevalent flowers and bushes in Maine.

As the school children up in Maine gaze out the windows of their classrooms and daydream of summer days, they still have to keep their jackets handy, for the transition to summer in Maine can be tricky.

A nice warm day can turn into a cold rainy day in the blink of an eye. The old Maine adage, “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute,” is never truer than at this time of year in Maine. It’s the smells wafting on the early spring air that hold the most promise however. The smells renew our spirits and make your whole world look better to you all of a sudden. I always got terrible “spring fever” about this time of year when I was a kid in Maine.

The little house in the field next to Sandy Beach in the South End

In Maine, folks look forward to the end of “mud season” and to changes in the wind patterns from the cold blasts of winter to the milder breezes of spring and the promise of warmer days to come.

Finally flowers begin appearing as if overnight: crocuses, tulips, jonquils (called daffodils here in Georgia) and the flowering bushes of forsythia and lilac, and those white “bridal” bushes. The spring smell I miss the most is Maine’s lilac bushes. We had one in our yard at the Mcloud Street house along with forsythia bushes.

Along this time of year it was dance recital time and our mother always took our pictures standing outside by one of the bridal bushes. Except for the sunny spot by the side of the house where the electric meter was, this was her second favorite spot in which to take our picture.

Graduation time was always the time for lilacs. The Community Building stage would be banked with the fragrant bush for both Baccalaureate and Graduation ceremonies. The smell of those lilacs remains with me to this day.

How many of you gathered a spring or summer bouquet for your mother when you were a kid? They might be just a bunch of dandelions but she was always appreciative. Other flowers we might gather were wild violets, buttercups, “painted” wild flowers, black-eyed Susans, pussy willows, or Queen Anne’s lace. My mother used to take the latter and put them into a vase of water with food dye added to it. She usually used red or blue which turned the lace to that color.

Queen Anne's Lace at Sandy Beach

The fields alongside our Maine roads often contained some of these flowers above along with beautiful waves of lupine of different colors as well.

Black-eyed Susans growing in the South End

This picture comes from the pictures I have of my friend, Pat Pendleton’s garden up in Rockport. It was taken a couple years ago.

As I come north this year I will miss the arrival and blooming of many of the above flowers and fauna. I do remember one trip I made up to Maine in the spring time. It was May and I came to bury my father, Ted Sr. The first thing I smelled when I got home was the lilacs. I like to think it was his final gift to me. Thanks, Dad.

Thanks for listening.