I always think of Calla Lilies as being white but there are several different colors these days. This bright yellow one is blooming in my garden now and I know I have a mauve one out there too, but it isn't blooming yet. This is one of the flowers I remember from my childhood... but only the white ones.
Calla Lilies and Easter Lilies go together in my memories. Just the smell of them takes me back to when I was a kid. The Calla Lily was my Aunt Ella's favorite flower and old pictures show they were in her wedding bouquet. She has passed on now, but when I smell lilies I think of her wonderful laugh and smile. She lives on in her two daughters who are very special cousins to me.
My folks grew Easter Lilies in northern California along with family members when I was about 4 I was too young to go to school with the rest of the kids and since there was no such thing as Day Care, Pre-School or Kindergarten back then, I would hang out in the shed where the bulbs were sorted. The bulbs were dug from the ground by the men and dumped on big tables. Long boards with holes which increased in size were used to measured each bulb and put it into the appropriate box. It was always exciting to find really large ones as they brought the best price. I remember tons of those bulbs being dug from the ground and sorted and packed. The boxes would stack up around us as the day went on. I'm sure I wasn't much help but I was always there with my Mom, Aunt Ella and Grandma Berg.
The smell of lilies takes me right back to the bulb shed!
