Grow Flowers Like Grandma

Take a trip down memory lane with us this week as we remember all the lovely flowers our grandmas used to grow.  Flowers make us feel and remember special moments in our lives unlike anything else.  

Many of these "Grandma Flowers" are making huge comebacks in cottage gardens everywhere, and they deserve to be talked about.  

The Gals love a good Grandma Flower, and we hope to expand your flower garden palette after listening to this episode, too!  

Get your lists ready because you're going to want to write some of these down for your next trip to the garden center.

Do it for you.  Do it for the birds and butterflies.  Do it for grandma.  We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it.

https://www.instagram.com/thegalswhogrow/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Monica with Lulu the A Field. And I'm Kathy with Coppertop Gardens. And I'm Bailey with How Home and Garden. We have been cultivating our gardens and farms for years now, but something really special was showed when we met and began working together.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Our shared passion for growing the best local flowers and food has made us realize the impact it's had in not only our own homes, but also in our local community. We are the gals who grow, and we can't wait to inspire you to grow too.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Don't all talk at once. Hello, everybody.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Hello, hello. Welcome back again. This week we thought we would talk about our favorite grandma flowers. Grandma Grandmama Grandma Grandma had the best flowers. I don't know about you guys, but like my grandma and grandpa were on a farm once in Bedford, Indiana. And I don't think I knew that. You didn't know that? Really? Yeah. What kind of farm? Um, they I when I've been alive, they had tenant farmers, but there was actually my great-great-grandpa had a dairy farm. Cool. What? And my great-great-great-grandpa was a limestone carver in Bedford, Indiana. And that's why we are here. But the dairy farm was in the family for like I almost like a hundred years, I think, or something around that. What kind of cows? Uh Hereford. Hereford. How'd you glad I knew that? Man. I don't even know what that is. You know way more about your family than I do. Yeah. Well, we also grew up going down to the farm. And so I there were certain flowers that my grandma always had. And the main ones were peonies. Yeah. And that's why I have all my grandma's peonies too. I mean, I think that is the top grandmama flower. Everybody's grandma has that. And grandma, we're saying grandma gardens are sort of in now. They are. They're trending. They're trending. And growing it the way your grandma did, as not caring about it and putting it out in the yard and just looking at it when it's blooming. Or like not the perfectly manicured car cottage gardening. Oh yeah. It's not a perfect mound that's been shaped into submission.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

It's like your grandma was not planting boxwood. Yes. No, she wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

So yeah, my grandma had those, and then my grandma also had these beautiful hydrangeas, although I don't remember them as well at the farm if she had them there, but she had them at her home in Columbus Indian. And those were she would always go out and put the blue you know soil acidifier on them, but they were the largest, prettiest hydrangeas. Like I have never had good luck with Annabelle or any sort of mop head hydrangea ever. And hers were beautiful. I feel like you either have the yard for it or you don't. Yeah. Yeah. And the people who do, you're like, oh my gosh, yeah. Hydrangeas. Yes, they're gorgeous. Yes. I I feel like she like she must have put effort into it that I did not know about because they were huge and gorgeous. And I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

I love my Annabelle's.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

They are yours, they are very pretty. They're so pretty. Yours do so well in your yard.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Yeah, and then I chop them off and sell them. Well, it's your job, Monica. I don't want to do that this year. Take them out then. I think I might. You should. Yeah. I left a lot of my peonies to bloom this year.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

That's actually gonna be good for your plants. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Um, what is another I don't I think my grandma one of my grandmas had a giant mop head as well, but it was like kind of in a shady spot. And growing up, I didn't know what it was. I just knew I liked it. It was a really pretty thing. Yeah, and and peonies again was a thing, and I remember some irises. Oh yeah. That is a grandma thing, but I don't remember my grandma ever having irises. But I do now have Joey's family's irises. Oh, from his great aunt. That's the other great thing about grandma flowers is that they always want to share them with you. Right. They always and they always yeah, they always come with a story. They do and a memory. Oh, I have a really cute story um about peonies. So when my dad was going through chemo treatments, it was like during peony season, and it was we had like just bought our house, and it was the first year that I saw my like my really grandma peonies blooming. Like they're like probably 70 years old. Yeah. Um, and so I was FaceTiming him and showing them to him, and he, you know, was like it's not fun going through chemo. So he was having a really hard time, and I FaceTimed my peonies, and he was just like, Oh my gosh, like I haven't seen those since my grandma when I was a kid. And he was like, Wow, I forgot how pretty those were. And I'm like, Yeah. I gave him that through a phone. Yeah, you did. But like, that's the cool thing. Yeah, about these types of plants. Yeah, they they do something to people, like they take you back, literally. And that's like the visual, like the scent can also be a huge yes, like roses, certain types of roses for sure. Yes. I think those ones I I didn't grow up with like roses in my family, but now that I'm so addicted to them, I'm sure that you guys, I just talked about my dad, and there's a red cardinal on your bird feeder behind us.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

That is so cute. I'm sorry. I have cardinals around here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

I don't ever see cardinals at home. What? Really? I see them at my house all the time.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

We live right around the corner from each other.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

I don't really. Really? I see giant hawks. Same turkey buzzer.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Yeah. Um, I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

I definitely remember peonies being in my grandma's yard. And I remember my mom having one in our old house. Um, and she's like, it just never bloomed. But I kind of want to go like knock on those people's door now and be like, hey, can I get that peony back there? I know it's not blooming.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

It's probably buried too deep. It's defective. I'll take it off hands.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Yeah. I'll take that. Yeah. Definitely that and like hostas. Oh, yeah. I'm pretty sure hostas. The hostas that I have are from my mom, and I'm pretty sure my mom probably got those from her mom. My mom has some from my grandma's farm.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yes. And they're so easy to share. You just chop off a chunk, and here you go. Yeah. My mom loves ferns because she remembers her great grandma growing amazing ferns and amazing roses. Like it was like that's what she paired together. Oh, that's interesting. Really, like, talk about vintage, like red climbing roses, and they're amazing on a white, like picket arch thing with these giant ferns beneath it. Like total 70s. Yeah. Like it's actually amazing. I have a picture of it. I'll find it and we can like share it. So you know, like you're gonna get the whole vibe.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Funny funny that we're talking about this because my mother-in-law just sent me a picture of her rose bush that they had in Albuquerque. Uh and it is gigantic. She said that there's probably like 2,000 blooms on it when it bloomed. It always bloomed around the race. Oh, yeah. And they were always leaving because they came to Indy for the race. And um, but she sent me a picture of it. So we'll have to post those pictures. Yes, yes, yes. Can you imagine the smell? My gosh. She said it uh that lavender and roses actually do really well in the desert because of the cool like evenings and dry air. I can see that.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

I can see that.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

For sure, yeah, because humidity, like the wet in rain, like roses get like the ball, like the what's it called? When the buds get like too too wet when they're in their like bud form and then they can't open.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Should they get like hollow in the middle? Because I feel like I noticed that. I don't know if it's no, that's getting eaten by something. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's definitely getting eaten. Right.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

I also fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Just what I wanted to hear. Got it. I don't remember my grandma having roses, but she might have. I'll have to talk to my mom about it. And there definitely was I do remember bleeding hearts being in her backyard. Or like around her house.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

I remember maybe some ferns too. I remember some bleeding hearts. Um like uh the scented geraniums that are like the hanging baskets with like the spike grass in the middle. I'm not telling you to plant the spike grass, but the geranium geranium's fun. And honestly, they have some benefits to them. They do. And hollyhocks, oh definitely grandma flower, for sure. But beautiful. I've never grown them actually.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Oh my gosh, they're so pretty. I I really would like to try and grow them again.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Yeah. I've grown them, but only by throwing the seed into the soil. Yeah, that's the only way. That's the only way I know. I think when we moved in our house and Aunt Shani was like, she knew I wanted to like have a huge garden or whatever, and she was like, Oh, you have to plant hollyhocks. And I'm like, I still haven't done that.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

I you really don't see them around that much anymore.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

No, you don't, you don't, which is so crazy because they're pretty easy to grow. Yeah, and they'll reseed themselves, apparently. I think the reason we don't grow them is because they don't cut very well. Yeah.

unknown 9:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

But if I just wanted like a nice, a nice big tongue bag thing. Whatever. Leave it in the garden. I just want it to be pretty.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Yeah. I I was gonna say the other thing I was thinking of is like lilacs. I feel like we're very totally, yes. Grandma, grandma shrub. And then if we were in the UK, sweet peas. Yes, sweet peas for sure. I think some people in the United States have that, but I I don't think it's a super, super common flower here for grandma's. I've never heard or seen of them before I was growing cut flowers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

So I know some people who like are like, I have a hundred-year-old bush that just comes back every year. It's just like reseeds itself in a few. I don't even know a bush of sweet peas. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

That's like that is crazy.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Because they are not hard to be real expensive to establish. No, it's not that they're living like they're living through it, they're reseeding themselves. Yeah. That's crazy. That would be really expensive to get something like that. They're not cheap seeds.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

So And how are they living? They have to be like right up against like a brick house.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

I don't know. I just remember one of Brandon's friends' wives contacted me and she's like, if you ever want sweet peas, I've got a bush of them that just comes back every year and I'm happy to dig some up for you. Like, oh, that is so funny.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Yeah. Yeah, I wish. I wish. No, I replant mine every year. But yeah, what are the other things that our grandmas grow? I definitely think foxglove fits in that category. Oh, yes, for sure. Foxglove.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

But also, it's just such a cool flower. Lupine. Yes. What? Yeah. Your grandmas had lupine? I feel like that's like an older like cottage garden. My grandma didn't have it, I don't think.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

I was gonna say, maybe in Indiana, I don't think. I don't know if you guys experienced this, but whenever I've had Nigella somewhere, like all of the older ladies are like, oh yeah. It's the blue color. Yeah, they're like, I have been growing this, my mom grew it. Like it's but a lot of people don't now are like, what is that? Yes, I mean it is a neat looking flower. It is a neat looking flower. And if you don't have bunnies, you can grow it. Pretty sure we were just watching the salad bar of of bunnies eating my niggas. A bunch of the cool flowers are like grandma flowers. Larkspur. Yep. Oh yeah. Totally like uh your grandma had that. This one is this one's more like an annual bed flower, but like my grandma always had impatience. Oh yes. Oh my gosh. We would get flats and flats and flats. Yes. And we would go over and we'd help her plant them. And they always looked awesome. Yeah. Like as they grew in, but definite grandma vibes for me. Yeah, for sure. And they are cute. I will give them that.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

I think I feel like every grandma has daffodils in their garden too. Oh yeah. And hello boards. I do think my grandma had hello boards. Really? Mm-hmm. The Darwin tulips.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Oh! Primroses! I got several primroses from my grandma. I have the red and yellow ones, and then my mom gave me some like orange ones.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

I don't grow those. I have some four o'clocks.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Yeah, you gave me seeds from them. I think I have seeds from you of those as well. I don't I didn't grow them. I didn't eat. I didn't have anywhere to put them. I didn't know what they are. They race seed. We just pulled some today.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

I mean, maybe they'll come back to me, but they're not they're not speaking to you right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Yeah. Well the primroses are just perennial. That's what they just are little clumps out in my in my garden, and I will divide and and move them so that they take over their shade, but so they fill in spots where you're like, what's gonna grow there? Yeah. I think poppies are a grandma flower. Oh yeah. Yes. Those like red ones with the black fuzzy center. The only ones I can grow. The only ones.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

So funny story, side chat. I threw poppy seeds, the big giant ones that grow the big pods, everywhere. I mean, I threw those things everywhere. And the only place that they are showing up are in crates that I did not plant them in. And I'm like, bro, what is going on? Are you sure that it's them? Yeah. I'm sure they have a pretty distinct leaf. They do. It's kind of waxy.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

I always had like they would always germinate like a boss for me. But they would get eaten by the slugs. Yes. So then I would only like to be able to do that. Maybe that's why I don't have any. I mean, I would literally I would literally sow seeds in like a solid carpet. Like because I just had so many. Because I saved the seeds, and you know how many seeds they make. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Like such a thick layer of these seeds. And like thousands of them would germinate. And then just like they would just disappear.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

So what and I would maybe that's why they survived in crates.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Probably. Because I I would end up in the ground. I would end up with like four that survived of those giant ones. But they all germinated. Like they were all good seed. It was just they didn't survive. Those stupid little things.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

I know.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

They're so cool.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

I feel like I sold my soul when I sold my pods. I like sold like 10 bunches for five bucks when I first started. I don't know. I don't know. And like they sold like hotcakes. Obviously.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

I think I want to try getting one of those elevated raised beds. Like that's actually off the ground.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

They totally just had dinner.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Always. We're eating all night long. We're watching the bunnies again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Hey, I can get a BB gun.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

No, no. There's plenty to share.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

We can share. You're nicer than we can. We can share. Can't we share? The bunnies are just like having a heyday back here. It's very distracting. Sorry. They're like also babies. They are babies.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

They're little babies.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

But what were we going to say, Cassie? You want to get like a really tall raised bed?

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Oh, yeah, like an elevated one, you know, where like it literally doesn't touch the ground, even the dirt part. Oh. Oh, and those don't stay moist.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

I know. But I can try. Okay. You can just put some wine bottles in them.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

That became my flower stand because I couldn't do it. I mean, yeah, they will dry out really fast. They dry out so fast. But maybe some things would do really well. But for germinating the poppies, and maybe I don't know. It's worth a try. I've also thought about planting like lettuce in there in like my half shaded spot in the back. So I feel like that would work out well.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Question. Once these poppies are germinated, do you think you can pot them up and move them?

SPEAKER_01 16:53

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Because I thought about doing that. I feel like I have some that are like so tiny because they're so close together. Yeah. But then I'm afraid.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

I feel like maybe try it, but I want to say they don't like root disturbances so much. At least Iceland poppies. So maybe the other kinds aren't that way, but I think they are.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Well, the good news is I'll get at least one pod. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

And I'll be able to try them next year. Yeah, that's what you gotta do. Make your money back, is what you gotta do. I can sell very many of my salt shakers.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

There you go. You gave two to us. Yeah. They're like sand. It's like sand and poppies and a salt shaker, yeah. And so you can make one. I'll give you one. Okay. You get a salt shaker. I did. You gave Liam some seed I'm for a salt shaker. I gave Liam two, and he goes, What did he say? Like something like, Do what do we do? Do we know what to do? And I'm like, your mom gave me those seeds. She knows what to do. What do we do with this? How will we ever find out?

SPEAKER_01 17:59

Not kidding, Maud. Like, you get one pod and you're gonna have 3,000 seeds and you can put it all over again. Fresh seeds. How do I get one pod? You gotta um borrow one.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

I'll give you a pod. You're only gonna have one. I'm gonna give you no, I'm gonna have more than that. I've got them. I do have them in multiple places. They're just not where I planted them. So they migrate.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

I planted a ton of packets as well, and not a single one has been sided. None of my poppies. I had good luck with the Shirley poppies two years ago.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

I don't understand. One year I had so many poppies. You did, and they were gorgeous. They were so beautiful. And they were huge. It was like Christmas morning every morning because they cracked open in the night. Yes. And so I'd go to bed and there would be no poppies because I was cutting them. Uh-huh. And I didn't know I shouldn't be, but I was cutting them. And then they would just open up. And I every morning.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

I remember you saying, like, oh my god, I need to go cut more poppies. Because they're just like, here I am.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

They're so pretty, and they always bloom right around Poppy's birthday. I just think that's a good one. Which is so crazy. It is so crazy. Because I didn't know anything about poppies when I named her.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Were those ones that you planted? Were those the big heads?

SPEAKER_00 19:17

So I had a lot of different varieties. Because I remember tiny heads. Like teeny tiny heads.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Surely poppies do not make large heads. Yeah. These specifically were the ones that are. Maybe they bloom purple. They just say like giant poppy pod variety. I got them from initially I got them from uh Lisa Mason Ziegler's website. Is it too late for me to plant it? Yes.

unknown 19:43

Dang it.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Very much so. You have to plant poppy seeds when it's snowing. Yeah, I know I put them out in January. Dang it.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

But maybe there's one out there somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

It's probably getting eaten by a bunny right there.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Okay, what would your grandma say about it? Since this is the grandma.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Yeah, what would that be?

SPEAKER_00 20:02

My grandma.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

Well, surely there's just one out there. I love that. Or more like. I don't even know. My grandma would say, I Monica took a quote from my grandma one time. She'd say, Well, at least he ain't dead yet. And do that as you wish. I really hope she doesn't hear this. But it's true. I mean, I actually really loved when she told me that because I was like, wow, that's deep. So my grandma never ever said anything bad, so it would literally be like, like, well, you grow a lot of things that are very beautiful. You probably shouldn't. I don't even know. Like, but your roses are so beautiful. You don't need to worry about it. You don't need any poppies. You continue to want to know what my same grandma said to me, completely out of context and just out of the blue one day. I get a text message from her at work. Why don't you raise chickens like the rest of your family? Like a valid point. I don't know. I know. I'm just like, I just I don't know, grandma.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Sorry to disappoint you. That's so funny. Oh my God. I don't know what your grandma would say. I really don't. My one grandma was lived in Chicago. So like when I was thinking about her her plants, she had potted plants. She probably had some herbs. Hey, those are good too. I definitely think she had a geranium. Oh I do think I remember colorful.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Dragoniums or geraniums for sure, Grandma Plants. Or a tar of rose. Yeah, yeah. Honestly, though, guys, like I as I get older, I find myself understanding the attraction to those in like a hanging basket.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

And I'm like, don't do it.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

I'm gonna grow keep a hanging basket wet.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Are you kidding me? I'm gonna grow um some Kent Beauty in a hanging basket. Oh, I think that would be so beautiful. Really? So I'm gonna do an experiment.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Do it. It's so beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

We should have a segment, Monica's experiment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

She's like, this week I'm not taking care of anything. And we can say, okay. Monica, what is your hypothesis for the way this will go? Oh, that's funny. We're on week seven of no watering that. Still holding on, it's all right. It's okay. Sorry, Mod, you do not sound like this. I love it. It's like, you know, it'd be more like Mark is like, I got 12 types of collashes out there. I do love, I do love the experiments. It's awesome. So the ones that were in my Chinese takeout did much better than mine. Totally upset. But the ones that went in the beer fridge with the open beer actually did much better I don't know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Look, if there's been a takeout container or a plastic container that's coming to my house or probably my parents' house, I've tried to grow something. We should do a bonus segment. Can I grow something in this? Yeah, yeah. I love it. All right. Well, tune in next time for my update on the Kent Beauty and the hanging pest.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Mm-hmm. We'll be we're here for it. It's gonna be great. Yeah. And and ask your grandma, or next time you're at your grandma's house, pay attention to her plants. Or your grandpa. Sorry, we left the grandpa's out.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Um and then maybe she'll share some of you. Well, you know what? My grandpa was a big nature guy, and he planted all the trees in my parents' backyard at uh in Wellington Northeast. Really? Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

So trees too. So he was a tree guy. For sure. My grandpa b grew blackberries now that you say that. Oh, my grandma grew blackberries. Yeah. I think that was also part of like having pro uh what's it called? Like um things that actually are purposeful. What's that called? Yeah, productive.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

My grandma also had rhubarb, I forgot. She totally had rhubarb in her back.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

It is a total grandma plant.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

And she definitely had like uh vegetables. She had a vegetable garden. There was like corn. It's all coming back to me now. It's all coming back to me. Yeah, she definitely had a big vegetable garden.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

So just take a page from the old days. Yes. And grow what your grandma grew. Grow your grandma grew. Think about it. I'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

See you next time. Hey, thank you for listening to our podcast.