ROLLING HILLS GARDEN CENTER
VILLAGE GALLERY
FLORIST
MAY QUOTES
“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.” Nathaniel Hawthorne
“All things seem possible in May.” Edwin Way Teale
“May, more than any other month of the year, wants us to feel most alive.” Fennel Hudson
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” Marie Curie
A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying. B. F. Skinner
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. Pablo Picasso
All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible. T. E. Lawrence
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. John Muir
We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion. Max de Pree
Origin of Mother's Day
The origins of Mother’s Day in the United States date back to the 19th century. In the years before the Civil War, Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped start “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs" to teach local women how to properly care for their children. These clubs later became a unifying force in a region of the country still divided over the Civil War. In 1868 Jarvis organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at which mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation.
Julia Ward Howe, the poet who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic, proposed the idea of Mother's Day. After the Civil War, she suggested a Mother's Day to recognize peace and protest war. She organized annual events in Boston to honor mothers, but despite her work (and her moving "Mother's Day Proclamation"), nothing official came of her efforts.
The official Mother’s Day holiday was proclaimed by President Wilson in 1912 as a result of the efforts of Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis. Following her mother’s 1905 death, Anna Jarvis conceived of Mother’s Day as a way of honoring the sacrifices mothers made for their children.
After gaining financial backing from a Philadelphia department store owner named John Wanamaker, in May 1908, she organized the first official Mother’s Day celebration at a Methodist church in Grafton, West Virginia. That same day also saw thousands of people attend a Mother’s Day event at one of Wanamaker’s retail stores in Philadelphia. She resolved to see the holiday added to the national calendar of holidays.
She conducted massive letter writing campaigns and gained political and popular support resulting in President Wilson's proclamation. Along the way the idea became much more commercialized than Jarvis thought it should be.
Why the Founder of Mother’s Day Turned Against It: Mother's Day soon became a time for selling flowers, cards, candles, candy, and other items. Jarvis felt this was far removed from what she had envisioned of an intimate time when families could honor the mothers. For many years she actively campaigned against this type of Mother's Day.
Interesting Facts about Mother's Day
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More calls are made on Mother's Day than any other day of the year.
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It is the third highest selling holiday of the year for flowers and plants.
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The earliest celebration of Mother's Day was by the Greeks.
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The word for mother in almost every world language begins with the letter M.
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The most popular Mother's Day gift is the greeting card.
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Mother's Day is celebrated all over the world in some form.
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In 2022, over 3.1 billion dollars was spent on Mother's Day gifts.
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Anne Jarvis used the carnation to symbolize whether a person's mother had passed or not. Wearing a red carnation meant your mother was still alive and wearing a white one said she had passed.
GARDENING TIPS FOR MAY
1. Feed the roses. Products like Rose-Tone by Espoma are a great feed for roses.
2. Hill your potato and corn plants and give them a top dressing of a nitrogen fertilizer.
3. If you haven't already, go ahead and plant your annuals and perennials.
4. Plant trees and shrubs that attract birds.
5. Summer vegetables and annuals seeds.
6. Mulch flower beds to help retain moisture and to keep out weeds.
7. Begin a regular program of weeding and weed control.
8. Bring house plants outside for the summer.
9. Prune spring blooming shrubs like forsythia, spirea, and others.
May is the month of Mothers, graduations, dance recitals, remembering the fallen soldiers, and so much more. Here a Village Gallery and Rolling Hills we welcome the opportunity to help you celebrate all the special moments of May and all the rest of the months of the year
For more information on Memorial Day check out the following websites:
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/memorial-day-history
https://www.pbs.org/national-memorial-day-concert/memorial-day/history/