The Heirloom Garden Quotes

“The daisies remind you to be happy. The hydrangeas remind you to be colorful. The lilacs remind us to breath deeply. The pansies reflect our own images back at us. The hollyhocks remind us to stand tall in this world. And the roses - oh, the roses! - they remind us that beauty is always present even amongst the thorns.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“Peace is within our reach if only we choose it.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever.” —Alfred, Lord Tennyson”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“Beauty can bloom from old wood, I think.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“Hope that something beautiful would grow despite the harsh winter, the frozen earth and a world that was constantly at war.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“Women are so hard on themselves, calling their looks ordinary, holding themselves up to standards of beauty set by men. Does a Susan consider itself any less beautiful than a peony? Does a wildflower growing in a ditch think of itself as less than one growing in a garden? No! So why do we?”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“My grandma taught me to make the tea when I was just a girl. Nothing more than picking four of the freshest hollyhock flowers, removing their petals and putting them into a Mason jar with a cup of boiled water. Put on the lid and allow to steep for 15 minutes or so. I like mine iced in the summer with a touch of local honey.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“What the heart has owned and had, it shall never lose.” —Henry Ward Beecher”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“Isn't an ordinary life a grand one all its own, filled with great drama and tragedy, hopes, love, losses, and dreams?”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“Life is but a short journey, filled with such horror and beauty, that too often allows our potential and destiny to die unfulfilled or allow us to bloom in ways we never imagined. But I - all of us - really have only one joint destiny: to leave this world a better place for those who follow.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“scoop some grape jelly into my jelly feeders and push orange halves into nails over the sweet jelly.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.” —Gertrude Jekyll”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“Only the tips of cut stalks remain. In two weeks I will return to this spot and prepare them for their winter burial. I will dig up my dahlias with a garden fork and take them inside where I will lay them out to dry, dirt and mud intact, so a protective skin forms on the outer layers of the tubers. I will trim the roots, wrap them in newspaper, top side down, and put them in plastic grocery bags, which I will label—very important at my age!—so I know what variety is enclosed come spring. I will haul the bags to my basement and place them in a cardboard box, checking on them every month or so to remove any rot. In April I will move them to a warmer area to come back to life, and bring their eyes to the surface.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“When leaves fall, they die, literally take their final breaths and exhale gases through stomata. Among those released is one that smells like pine, a main scent of fall.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“butterfly garden is comprised of purple coneflower, Black-eyed Susan, butterfly bush, phlox, milkweed, monarda—or bee balm, as I prefer to call it—lots of plants with luscious nectar that caterpillars love to eat and adult butterflies love to feed upon. I also have ornamental grasses scattered throughout to provide shade and places to hide. But butterflies and bees seem to love my purple coneflower more than anything. They are attracted by its color and stay for its nectar. As if on cue,”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“was—how old?—when my dad taught me to whisk together a half cup of sugar with two cups of warm water. So simple yet so magical.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.” —John Ruskin”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“Had I but four square feet of ground at my disposal, I would plant a peony in the corner and proceed to worship.” —Alice Harding”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“There is something about planting our roots somewhere. Forever. No matter how difficult the seasons.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“We’re not as clever as we think. We rarely invent; we constantly reinvent because we can’t remember squat. But once we rid ourselves of something, we can no longer get it back.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“you’re brave only when you’re willing to love, lose, get hurt.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“We think we know everything because we know nothing.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“your lifeline, your counselor, your sounding board. And sometimes your friend is a bridge to the other side, a bridge back to the world of the living.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“This earth connects us all,” Shirley says. “And from this earth, great beauty is eternally reborn.” She stops. “Make your home and garden a testament to your talent and the love of family. That way you can appreciate it every day.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“Everything must hibernate in order to grow anew, my grandma said.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“But I’m nervous.”
“That’s natural”, I say. “But you know what? I never say I’m nervous. Do you want to know what I say?“ Lily nods. “I always say I’m excited. And that’s what you need to remember. You’re not really nervous, you’re just really excited. There’s a big difference between being scared and excited. That’s what makes you feel all fluttery inside, like you ate a million butterflies.”
“That’s exactly how I feel!” she says.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“Life is filled with overwhelming tragedy, but it's also filled with incomparable beauty. I read somewhere that god doesn't come to us in the happy times. He comes to us through our scars and wounds.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden

“But most of all, it was a tribute to hope. Hope that something beautiful would grow despite the harsh winter, the frozen earth and a world that was constant at war.”
― Viola Shipman, The Heirloom Garden