Lily of The Valley.

I have loved these tiny white flowers since I was a little kid. They grew around our big house in Woodhaven, next to my mother's tulips, and they grew in both of my grandmothers' yards, and their aroma was unmistakable and unforgettable. I don't know which was more magical to me when I was little-- their thick green leaves or their teeny-tiny white blooms. I loved them so much that it was all I could do not to pick every single stem as soon as they popped up in the Spring. In my Grandmother's yard in South Ozone Park, there were so many Lily of The Valley plants that Grandma would let me pick a big bouquet as long as I "picked nice" and didn't tear the plants to shreds.

Since we've lived in Texas, I've hardly seen Lily of The Valley blooming in front yards. There are lots of older homes in The Heights and as we had driven by them in years past, I thought I saw teeny white flowers growing along the rim of flower beds, but I was never sure if they were the minuscule Lily of The Valley blooms.

Over the years, as I've gone to antique shops and resale stores, I have found Lily of The Valley teacups, and of course I bought just one. I found a delicate china Lily of The Valley coffee-mug at a yard sale years ago, and I use that for tea sometimes when just a cup isn't enough. One of the nicest finds was a Lily of The Valley pin that I discovered at the bottom of a basket filled with vintage costume jewelry in a consignment shop...... the oval faux pearls look like the tiny white blooms, and the intricate clump of leaves at its base looks like the pin had just been plucked out of a garden. It was just a few dollars, but it looks like a fine piece of vintage jewelry and I just love it.

So.... there I was this morning.... out in the yard with Gracie, checking the mailbox and watching the chickens pecking in the ground by the gazebo........ and I saw those tiny white blooms surrounding the bases of the pecan trees. Couldn't be........ could it? I forgot all about the mailbox and walked over to the gazebo..... and there they were--- those thick green leaves, the tall thin stems, those teeny white Lily of The Valley blooms........ I just couldn't believe it. I had seen the green leaves coming up after the last freeze we had, but I didn't give them another thought........ I just guessed they were some sort of border-plant for the flower beds around the trees.

Of course, I had to pick (nice) a bouquet of them and hold them up to my face so I could get that remarkable unforgettable aroma from the blooms. And, of course, I took it as yet another sign that we were meant to be in this big old hundred-year-old house. The Lily of The Valley blooms are sitting on my desk as I type. The stems are in a tall champagne glass, each tiny white flower
curtsy-ing down towards the lace runner on the top shelf of this bookcase-desk. As I look at them, I can hear my mother telling me not to touch her tulips as I pick the tiny flowers in front of our house, and I can hear my Aunt Dolly telling me not to pull the roots out of the ground when I pick the stems from Grandma's garden. Pick nice. Nice and easy.

I'm not going anywhere today, but after I put the Lily of The Valley into the champagne glass, I took the faux pearl pin out of my jewelry box and pinned it on my sweater. Just for the heck of it, in celebration of the teeny tiny white flowers that I discovered so many years ago in Queens, and re-discovered just today here in the Hill Country. What a great surprise....