Growing up my grandmother has a large patch of lilies of the valley along her fence. I remember the sweet smell each spring and the clean and bright little flowers that looked like miniature bells. Years later when my grandmother moved out of her house I took the opportunity to transplant a few of the flowers into my own yard. My grandmother passed years ago but I still have her lilies blooming each Spring. Looking out at all the little white blossoms one day I decided to put one in front of…

Arden, North Carolina

Sweetest of the flowers a-blooming in the fragrant vernal days is the lily-of-the-valley with its soft, retiring ways. Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906)