Need help with two memory gardens.

Hillis has had both parents pass. His father in 06 and his mother several years ago.

His mum was a single mum and very strong willed. She was a bartender and shot herself in the leg by accident while breaking up a bar fight.
Her name was Lilli.

His father was a mason and worked dog hard his whole life. A strong man, rough-but good.

Both died of cancer too young.

I need plant names for these gardens i am planning.
Both will have shady areas and full sun areas and dappled shade.
Plants need to be hardy to my zone.

They were both Christians and loved God- so jesus type plants are good.

I am definitely using some stonecrops for his dad, lol.
He loved cannas too.
Anything to do with masonry.

I need everything from trees to water plants.

Thank you guys so much!!!

i can't help you with plant names but he could have a nice sign made up declaring "my family garden" or "my parents garden"
this way he cold plant any number of different things.

Thats a really good idea.
I bet we could make one out of concrete, it would do his daddy proud!
Thanks!!

I saw a small memory garden that I really like. It was concrete steps for a mobile home. They were painted and on the risers was painted the names and birth dates and deceased dates. They had solid green planters on the steps and such things as "Mom's Favorite", "for Mom", "Mom's favorite color" etc.. written on the Pots. You might be able to do the same idea with wooden steps and call them a stairway to heaven. Lou

Crimson~Just a thought... Oriental lillies would be great for Lilli,surrounded by white alysum as a beneficial companion flower. Or a Peace rose to reflect her personality and Oxalis tetraphylla 'Iron Cross' for the Dad.

You guys have excellent ideas!
I am gonna do all of those for these gardens. Hillis will really appreciate this! Thanks so much.
Ill make sure to post pictures as we go.

yhou haven't mentioned therei names but i know someone who planted a vegetable garden for her parents and grand parents. if you have ever grown tomatoes you will see that that there are literally hundreds of different name for them and just maybe one of them will have the names he is looking for.

Memory gardens are one of the greatest things ever. I'm so glad to hear whenever someone is doing one.

There's three plants that I always suggest for any memory garden. One is Forget-Me-Not, for obvious reasons. If I remember correctly there are a few different kinds of FMN, some are even water plants. I have some here that open pink, turn lavender and then blue (if you'd like some just let me know). The second two plants both give a % to breast cancer research when they are purchased (something that may be very special in your memory garden). One of them is a Hosta called 'Remember Me', the other is an Echinacea (coneflower) called 'Hope'. Here's a link to the lovely story that goes along with them http://www.waltersgardens.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=enews.article&article_id=113

I've done a memory garden with mostly Daylilies. If you're into DLs that would be such a great way to go, especially with the name Lilli. If you go to http://db.tinkersgardens.com/ you can do a search for any name or color of DL. There are so, so, so, many different DLs with such awesome names that you could literally plant one (or two!) for each different faucet of your loved one's personalities! For example, there's 'Clothed in Glory' to remember where our loved ones are now...another called 'Big Hair' that one could bring back many memories for me (of myself and MANY loved ones, lol). If you're not sure what to search for just start looking through the images and you'll find some that are just perfect in no time at all.

Another great resource is right here at DG, actually when I was doing my memory garden it was my best resource. It's the PlantFiles. You're even luckier than me though, because Dave has changed things around with it a bit recently. You can search for nearly anything and get a ton of hits. I just typed in "blue" and got 2,515 hits. I typed in "lily" and got 3,214 hits. Now I'm sure that every plant that shows up won't match your criteria, but I'm betting you'll find hundreds to choose from. When searching the PlantFiles for my garden I tried to think of colors I wanted to use and also words that went along with personalities and even the people's names themselves.

Doing a memory garden is such a healing endeavor. One word of caution though...even though it sounds like you have a large area to plant in, start small. You can always add more and more plants in the years to come. You'll find so many plants you'll want. With my memory garden I kind of filled it all up at once...and wish I had more room because I keep finding plants I want to add. It's a joy to be able to add to the garden when you find that "just right plant" with the perfect color and name. You know what I'm trying to say. ^_^

I also wanted to say that I loved the sound of those steps! I wish I would have read that last week, there was a set of steps for a mobile home available on our local freecycle. But, it's something I can look forward to doing some other time.

I had a few other ideas I wanted to share...
A lot of the plants in my memory garden were given to me, and that makes them even more special to me. On the tags and markers for each plant I put the name on the front of the marker and then on the back I put who gave it to me and when I planted it. It's a really nice reminder on sad days in the memory garden of how much people really care...even "strangers" on DG. It can be very comforting.

Your tags and markers can be garden art in a way...I'm wondering if you could get some old bricks and break them up, in half or even smaller, and put the plant's names on them even with paint. Maybe seal them so it doesn't wear off. I like to use a marker that farmer's use for pigs and cows ears. It NEVER wears off.

I don't know how you feel about the bottle trees, some folks love them, others hate them, lol. You could do a bottle tree for Lilli since she was a bartender. I've also seen somewhere that folks have used bottles as a border/edging for their beds. They bury them half way down. I thought it was very cool, creative and different.

Don't forget to plan a place or two for a bench or seat of some kind. One of the best parts about memory gardens is to actually sit in them. Add a bird bath close by and it becomes one of the most peaceful places.

I'll be thinking and if I come up with any more ideas I'll post them. Good luck, you will enjoy this so much...and so will whomever tends the garden after you.

Roy was his father
Lilli was his mum.
I bet theres lots of plants with their names in them.

His daddy LOVED growing tomatoes, up until the very end of his illness he grew some in his front yard.

I would love some of those Forget Me Not's. Never heard of a flower turning so many colors!
I'll definitely be adding daylilies, they're a joy!

I wanna make a great couple of benches out of logs/stump/cement/rocks.
Things his father would have been proud of lol.

Definitely birdbaths too! And ponds! lol And even Bonsai lol.

Thanks for all the great ideas guys.

I like the bottle bush idea!



Once while in the service, his daddy was to carry a bomb and dispose of it. He thought it was a dud but after ALOT of man handling and it riding in the seat beside him they found out it could have gone off at ANY second! LOL