A Lily From Nana

When I first moved to Arizona, I brought a wooden planter full of my Nana's cybidium orchids and a few calle lily plants.  Well, neither lasted long and that first Arizona summer put an end to these beautiful flowers and they all dried up.  I was pretty disappointed since I felt so much joy seeing these plants bloom, and they brought back such great memories of Nana's beautiful flowering gardens.  Since I lost the flowers, I just couldn't part with the wooden planter, so I mixed up some new soil and planted some aloe, something that I knew would grow in the AZ sun.  These plants thrived and multiplied over the years and I transplanted them to my yard as they grew to adult plants - aloe grows like wildflowers so I am constantly passing them along to friends and family.  A few years later, I was removing some plants to another pot and I dug up some old bulbs that I had forgotten about.  Could these be the orchids or lilies from Nana's plants?    I was excited to see what they were so I planted them in a raised bed on the east side of the house and waited for spring.  Lo and behold the next spring some calle lily leaves popped through the soil and I had one beautiful bloom!  My Nana's lilies had lay dorment in the wooden planter and when I planted them in the mulch enriched soil in the raised beds, they came back to life!  What a lovely surprise and delight to see these lilies growing again.  Over the next few years, the lily's multiplied and now each year produce more blooms than the year before. I've given bulbs to several family members and I hope they are still growing.  I sometimes wonder if this lily started way back from the garden on Flower, or Olive Street, but regardless of the origin, they bloom on and   constantly remind us of Nana and her 'green thumb' - I hope she is smiling down as she sees her family planting these and passing on her love of flowers to future generations!