I have posted often about my father's past year, including his surgery to insert a stent in his aorta and bypass a nasty aneurysm. We are saddened that today my dad will be returning to surgery to repair a leak that has developed from that surgery. Read about his surgery here, here and here. He has been doing very well and we are hopeful that this will not be a major setback. I thought I would rerun this 2008 Father's Day post in his honor. Prayers heavenward appreciated!
My father has always been a crusader for nasturtiums. He is the Johnny Appleseed of the world
of nasturtiums, harvesting seeds every year and packaging them up in homemade, hand-colored seed packets and sending them off to relatives around the country. Last year my seeds only sprouted tiny little lonesome nasturtiums, but this year I have a whole mound of them starting to appear. My children, my siblings, my friends have all planted dad's seeds and we all try to remember to send him pictures of our successes and even of our failures. My father has loved flowers as long as I've known him. I recently came across a picture of myself at about 3 or 4 years old surrounded by his flowers, and didn't realize that my own love of flowers must have started at that moment. My daughter loves flowers and my two sons both garden with extreme passion and blog about it! Oh that all the things I wanted to pass down were so enduring! When my parents moved to a retirement community in Arizona, my father defied the rules and planted and tended beautiful nasturtiums for many years, until the management finally required that he stop. Is the love of flowers or gardening hard wired in the family genes? Thanks, dad, for the seed packets -- and the genes!
Nasturtiums Here Too! (From Leona!)This year I finally found a place to plant nasturtiums! So I planted Rudy's seeds from 2007 and 2008! Here they are...poking their little heads up in the Seattle sunshine. Stay tuned for blooms! Thanks, Rudy! We hope they do you proud.
