If friendship were a garden, Amaryllis would be a friend who is always there for us. In Georgia we have many months of beauty in our landscape. Perhaps March is one of our most beautiful months for blooms. The Amaryllis bulbs that we can save from year to year might have come into bloom in February or March in our homes. When the blooms finish, it will be time to fertilize them and watch the leaves grow more lush.

In May my bulbs will be transferred to the garden where the bulbs will be replenished as the foliage continues to grow…

Friends, plants, gardens, and friendship go and grow hand in hand as you’ll see in these thoughts from RGC members who share how their gardens grew, row by row, with flowers from their friends.

Roz: Most of the plants in my sun room were given to me by friends and family. These photos show plants from hiking, synagogue, and garden club friends and ONE (green pot) from my Mother.

When Mom moved out of her house in Brooklyn, she gifted me with her only houseplant. The plant ‘lived’ with me in New Jersey and then traveled with me to Georgia. I think about my Mom, who passed in 2008, when I care for her plant.

When plants from friends show significant growth and/or bloom, I send photos. During the worst of the Pandemic I spent many hours in the sun room with the plants. Although I live alone, my friends were often with me as I tended their plants.

Flowers, like our friends and family, are the gifts that nature provides us throughout our lives. From the time we are born to the day we become one with nature ourselves; flowers keep us company. They brighten our homes, our workplaces and hospital bedside, and celebrate all sorts of occasions; they are presented as symbols of Love, friendship and sympathy. Even the simplest Dandelion brings a smile to a mothers face when her child lovingly gifts it to her. Many a book has a flower pressed inside it as a keepsake, often forgotten until re-discovered and the memories come flooding back. Flowers are also the harbingers of the coming spring season; we feel happiness and anticipation upon seeing that first Crocus peek it’s head out of the snow. Flowers are universally admired and loved.

Throughout the world flowers grow everywhere, even in the coldest and hottest of places. They decorate our yards, countryside, cities and highways. They can be found deep in the woods where barely a spot of sun shines through, …