Creating a Special Memory Garden

Creating a memorial space in an existing landscape design can be as easy as carefully selecting a few choice plants, or you could base an entire garden area around a memorable event such as the birth of children and grandchildren. Here are some ideas for making your memory garden a meaningful place.

Select Plants with Memorial Themed Names

Here is a whole list of plants with names that evoke memory, fond regards and celebration of life. These plants can be used to immortalize a love one who’s passed on with the rose name “Sweet Freedom”, or someone who served in the armed forces with Centaurea ‘Purple Heart’ and ‘Memorial Day’ roses, or the birth of a new baby with the rose ‘Heaven on Earth’.

Plant their Namesake Plant

According to the ancient language of the flowers, so popular during the Victorian era, many names had plants associated with them. Of course many girl names are named after popular plants and that is easy: Rose, Rosemary, Veronica, Lily, Ivy, Daisy, etc.

In the language of flowers, however, even common and boy names had plants connected with them such as Aaron for sage, Laura for a garland of roses, Rebecca for Star of Bethlehem, and Michael for geranium.

Create a Plant Combination with their Name or Initials

There are two ways to approach creating a special plant combination in the honor of a loved one. If the name is rather short, you could choose a plant for each letter of the name. For example, in honor of my son Evan I could plant E=Echinacea, V=Violets, A=Agapanthus and N=Nasturtium. Or you can use initials, which I would choose with my daughter, and use BJE. B=Bergenia, J=Jacob’s Ladder and E= Elder Tree. The options with this are nearly unlimited giving the memorial gardener lots of room for creativity. Even small garden spaces or containers could become a memory garden with this idea.

Use their Birth Month Plant

Each month of the year has its own plant associated with it. For a quick memory garden space try planting the plant of their birth, or death, month. In order of January through December the plants of the months are:

• January – Carnation
• February – Violet
• March – Daffodil
• April – Daisy
• May – Lily of the Valley
• June – Rose
• July – Larkspur
• August – Gladiolas
• September – Aster
• October – Calendula
• November – Chrysanthemum
• December – Narcissus

See more details about each of the Birth Month Flowers.

Memorialize the Day of the Week Through Color

In The Pregnancy Herbal, Jacqulene Harper-Roth discusses how each day of the week has a color associated with it. Why not plant your memorial garden in the color connected to the day of your loved one’s birth, death or special occasion you want to memorialize. The colors of the week are:

• Monday – Violet Try planting clematis vines, echinacea, chives, and other purple flowering plants.
• Tuesday – Red Common red plants include the rose, poppy, bee balm, gladiolus, dahlia and many others.
• Wednesday – Orange Use orange flowering plants like nasturtium, marigold, gaillardia and many others.
• Thursday – Blue Blue plants and herbs include borage, chicory, hyssop, geranium and others.
• Friday – Green Use herbs and plants known for their foliage such as lemon balm, hostas and thyme.
• Saturday – Indigo For a Saturday memorial garden you might use lavender, columbine, or rosemary plants.
• Sunday – Yellow Many flowering plants are available with yellow blooms such as Carolina jessamine, arnica, coreopsis and coneflowers.