Lancaster Lilies

So... once upon a time there was a girl who lived in a row-home in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Her yard could be mowed with scissors and the flowerbed was even smaller. BUT, this girl loved flowers. One day, while visiting Amish country, Lancaster County Pennsylvania, she saw the most beautiful picture of lilies next to a handwoven basket full of promising brown bulbs. They had to be hers. She bought a few of them, planted them, and waited anxiously for them to grow. When at last they bloomed they were even more gorgeous than she had expected! She stared at them everyday they flourished because she knew she would only get one spring...

She moved. She left the lilies. To her joy, her WONDERFUL friend bought the house and tiny yard with the newly planted lilies. The girl knew that the lilies would be cherished by her friend. And they were. The beautiful lilies bloomed and multiplied for several springs. But, alas, it was time for the friend to move too. Before she left, though, this wise friend went out into her yard, dug several of the magical bulbs and carried them lovingly with her across the country, planting them in her yard 2,173 miles away.

One fall the girl who loved flowers received a package from her dear friend. What could it be? Inside were the cherished bulbs - covered in dirt from all of the places they had been planted and bloomed.

This summer they have bloomed for the first time in Idaho, in my own garden once again. The most beautiful lilies I have ever seen. They are a blossoming story to me. I look at them and am transported. And, just in case you are wondering, they have NOT yet ended their journey. The friend who saved them had to make an unexpected moved this winter - leaving her unsuspecting lilies asleep in her Utah flowerbed. The next journey for the Lancaster Lilies will be to North Carolina...