There was a day about 10 years ago that my husband and I were driving on Allisonville Road and saw a wheelbarrow filled with orange ditch lilies with a sign inviting folks to take.
I told my husband to turn the car around and that we were going to put in a new flower bed in at our old house.
This became one of our favorite spots in our old house, but nobody loved this spot more than Stella. You see, her name was Stella, but we only called her Poof. Poof would wait until the sea of orange was in all its glory and walk through with the foliage of the lilies brushing her face. If you have a dog, you know that anything new in your yard is an immediate source of curiosity. From the moment we planted them, they became her domain. I know she must’ve felt like a lion walking through the Sahara. She was such a big dog that I think part of her liked this wild patch of lilies because they became so big that it offered her some privacy. Of course, we could still see her, but she didn’t know that, and we never told her.
When it came time to move, one of my biggest priorities when transplanting my flowers from the old house to our current one were my ditch lilies. They were not just sentimental; they were absolutely beautiful. Fortunately, we were able to have Stella in our new house, but she passed away about a year after we moved. After we lost her, my sister gave us windchimes with her name and we placed them in the yard where we planted the ditch lilies.
Every time I see an orange daylily, I think of Poof wading through them and how much she loved them. I used to get so mad at her when she would decide to run through them and knock the stalks to the ground. Looking back on it, those are some of my favorite memories of her.
Poof really loved her lily patch! (Photo provided by Megan Rathz)
My poof lilies make me think about my mom and her Mema’s peonies. Every time the peonies bloom, it’s not just a beautiful flower; it is a reminder of her grandmother that she loved so much. She isn’t just trimming a bloom; she is tending to something that her grandmother used to and it’s a reminder of how much of a role she played in my mom’s life.
The beautiful thing about nature is the continuity. Nature’s cyclical beauty is comforting for me because I know that even though I do not get to see Poof, I get to take care of her lilies and remember some of the things that made her the happiest. I also know that when the season is over that they will bloom again next year. I also know that as they continue to grow, they will be split and placed in various places in my yard and make me feel Stella’s presence.
My first bloom of the season makes me happy because it reminds me of Poof in all her glory. Of course they make me a little sad, but when I see how beautiful they are and am reminded of her romping through them, I can’t help but smile.
Now, I have two dogs that run through the same orange lilies and cause the same mayhem that Stella always did, though they will always be Poof’s lilies.
Megan Rathz is a wife, mother, and teacher. She says everything she has ever learned in life came from her Master Gardener mother.