Who was the most influential gardener in your life?

Definitely my Mother. As a young child I lived with my parents in an apartment behind a camera store. There was a very small yard in the back and my mother was always planting flowers in pots and putting them on a small stoop there. She gave me the "special" job of watering them. My love for flowers and nature comes from her. :>)

I was turned towards gardening as a little girl. My granddad, then my dad, turned over large gardens when I was growing up. Pop pop taught us how to plant tomatoes and onions and other vegetables. It's one of my fondest memories of him.
Martha

He was a druid old man named Andrew Thoro, a balalaika maker and one of the heads of our orchestra many years ago. There was nothing he didn't know about plants.

My Grandmother could grow ANYTHING. From as early as I can remember there was always a huge garden and a sunporch full of flowers. Her yard was a haven for birds, she loved the birds! She lived in the city, but had a large fenced in lot on the corner of two streets. She believed in sharing the bounty of her garden with friends and family. She would save seeds and make pictures out of them. I loved to watch her "paint" with seeds. Later my parents bought a glass greenhouse and flower shop,and started a family run business. So I guess you'd say it's hereditary! Growing things more than a hobby for me...it is my bliss. Thank you Grandma for teaching me to love the earth and the wonder that lives inside a tiny seed.

My dad.

Ed Jenkins. He was my boss at Louisiana Landscape several years ago,and there just wasn't anything he didn't know about. A walking encyclopedia. He was the first person I ever met that just loved plants! I still plant his favorite, Persian Shield, every year, in memory of him.

Dave!!! I have learned more from this site than anywhere else. I am mostly self-taught, as I had no one in my family or circle of friends that gardened.

My BFF, Cheryl. She has gone to her reward, but regardless of that, I take her with me every time I approach anything in my garden. RIP, Cheryl.

Although I voted "other", my grandparents and parents always kept gardens, both functional and decorative. They had something growing either indoors or out. These days, I am sustained by people with the desire to learn (newbies) as well as those who are masters. We can share our knowledge and still learn something new every day. The internet has been a wonderful tool to meet up with others sharing our passions and to gain information not always available locally.

Learn from my mom...

My dad's mother was the source of my inspiration for gardening. She would visit us from Utah once a yr and her and I would talk gardening. I would show her all my flowers and she would make suggestions. She taught me how to cross pollenate flowers when I was 9 yrs old. It was so much fun. When she past, I cryed for days. To this day I still miss her.

My Father. From the time I was old enough to remember, my father always planted a summer, vegetable garden, a fairly large one. Other than dropping the seeds in the holes for him as a small child, I never helped him in the garden, although I was always willing to pick and eat the garden bounty.

For Dad, a garden was not an option; it was a non-negotiable part of life, and even though I virtually never helped him, somehow his gardening still had a profound effect on me, and I learned a surprising amount about gardening just from growing up around him. Believe it or not, I actually tasted grocery store vegetables for the 1st time when I grew up and moved out on my own. Ugh, was I ever shocked to learn how tasteless those market vegetables were in comparison to the wonderful, garden veggies I had enjoyed through Dad's labor. After that, it was only a short time before I started a garden of my own.

I love the feel of the good earth between my fingers. I never thought about it before now, but I guess for me gardening is sort of like 'comfort food' for the soul. From the subtle aroma of freshly turned soil to the colors of the summer harvest, on some subconscious level it all probably reminds me of my childhood.

I voted "other" because I was the first one in my family to have any interest in gardening. I never had much to do with neighbors while I was growing up either, but have been interested in organic gardening and have been doing it whenever possible since I was about 20.

The real PIRL, of course. Mrs. Loeffler was my neighbor and taught me to garden. She became my "other mother" when my mom died. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of her and I will always be grateful to her.

Here's a photo of her taken on our wedding day 1/1/91 when she was 90 years old. I hope I age as well.

my grandfather definitely passed his green thumb on to me. every year he would grow a huge field of lima beans, black eyed peas, or green beans. He has been gone 10 years now, but i am thankful to have been bitten by the garden bug like he was

My paternal grandfather always had a veggie garden. My maternal grandmother always had snapdragons and petunias in her yard. My dad took roses from his garden to the secretaries at this work (he was very popular), and there doesn't seem to be anything my mother does not know about growing things. When I was 14 and we moved, she potted up as many plants as she could and every nook and cranny of the moving truck, pickup, and car were full of plants. Her flowers and arrangements have won many a Garden Club ribbon. Is it any surprise that I took up gardening?

my grandmother, who planted roses, hollyhocks, hydrangea and four o clocks on a tiny plot in the city and made it seem, to my young eyes, like a botanical "wondergarden". my uncle, who drove me around the countryside telling me the names of every tree and bird we saw and who gave me my first garden books. lastly, my sister, without whose drive and determination to show me how to plant, what to plant AND to use the correct nomenclature. she is truly the eternal constant gardener and i am grateful just to stumble in her footsteps.

I had gr-grandparents and grandparents who farmed in NW Tennessee where my parents were both raised. My dad was a perfect example of taking a boy out of the country, but not taking the country out of the boy. He bought the 2 lots next to our home in town and put in a huge vegetable garden. The yard was always filled with flowers, shrubs, roses, fruit and nut trees, strawberries, black berries, etc... My dad was my biggest influence on urban gardening. We buried him in his favorite bib overalls. : )

By the way, my maternal grandma still lives on her TN farm. Today is her 94th birthday!

Happy Birthday, grandma!!

My biggest influences were being on my grandparents small farm and my mother. She always grew something, if only a few tomatoes. She also loved to create floral arrangements, mostly dried. They were gorgeous!

Alan Titchmarsh, Montyn Don and Carol Klein, all from BBC, and then, my grandfather. he loved growing specific plants like gladioli, dahlias, and lettuce. He didn't eat lettuce but he loved the way iceland lettuce looks...

My mum, both my grandmothers, my grandad. All great gardeners.

My grandparents were Farmer's and Gardener my Grandmother on the half of my family ..
That and myself is were or why I like (love) the food and greenery .
Besides it outstanding when some show off their natural creativity . (I ain't showy about it)..

It sounds like most of us had at least one endearing relative that introduced us to gardening. I believe that many of us will be responsible for the next generation of gardeners. : )

My father. Wish he was still here to see what grew from his love of growing things - mostly edibles.

There isn't a single gardener in my family or growing up circle...I can't blame this obsession on anyone but me...LOL

floridaheat,

I hadn't thought of it as an "obsession", but you're right, it is. You made me smile :> )

There is nothing wrong about an obsession of enjoying greenery , blooms or food plants they way you like it ,
You realize without any of those , you have a barren desert . Bo-ring !!!^_^

Helping my Grandmother was my first and most memorable experience with flowers. My Grandfather raised a large garden with enough potatoes to sell quite a few bushels. He also had pear trees, he sold what they didn't can from those also. Grandma may have gotten the pay check, but he earned his own spending money through his hard work.
Another influence was a elderly neighbor named Sam Henry. Sam grew and bred Gladiolus, he taught me a lot also. Glads remain one of my favorites.
My great uncle and aunt had greenhouses where I worked for awhile, they were a big influence too.

Both my maternal and paternal grandmothers had flower gardens. My mom always had flower gardens, and my dad always had a huge vegetable garden. Family gardens always bring back memories.
Dad always made us kids work in the garden: planting seeds, weeding, picking off bugs, and picking produce. Then, my mom & I would can and freeze a lot of it. It would sustain us until the next year. I remember shelling peas in lawn chairs in the shade in the front yard and snapping lots of green beans--good memories. When I put up green beans, I always think of Mom and I putting up lots of green beans and other vegetables.

I did not like planting the seeds when I was a teenager because it would "get dirt under my fingernails"! Goodness! Can you imagine? I sometimes think of that when I am washing the dirt off my hands and from under my fingernails.

When I had small children, we lived in a house that had a small garden space in the front of the dining room window. Our soil was really bad (hard clay). I was frustrated trying to get a trowel in it. When Dad came to visit once, he prepared the soil and planted zinnia seeds in that garden. Later, I had people tell me how pretty the flowers were and even later, we had gobs of Goldfinch eating the seeds. I was hooked on gardening!

Arlene, I enjoyed seeing the "real" Pirl.

Both my mom and my grandmother grew tons of stuff in containers. My grandmother could grow anything and my mom wasn't too bad either. My grandmother also grew a very small veggie garden (think driveway strip size). I remember "helping" her pick okra and other veggies that grew in that little plot of land.

One thing I remember about the women in my family is the houseplants. They shared cuttings and re-used items as planters. Most of the houseplants were placed near a sunny window on benches and small tables. In the summertime, they were taken outside to decorate the porches.

I'm English and have always known how to grow vegetables. It's in the English blood.

I began at the age of eight - that was 61 years ago.

Nobody taught me to garden. Even to this day, I can "feel" when it's "right". I can't explain it...

Honeybee, your post made me laugh because my husband is British and he nearly faints if I dig up an earthworm! He was once heard to say that he didn't like going to the house of one of my brothers because it was "too green". He's a real would-be city boy and would be happiest in the middle of London (but not too close to any park)!

My Mother was a wonderful flower person her favorites were the Glads which I still plant as a memorial to her ..A huge influence later in my life was Ruth Stout mostly thru her writings in Organic Gardening.I teach a gerdening class and feel blessed as two ladies in my class actually met Ruth at a writers conference ,so of course I get them to talk about her at every oppertunity..

i should also add that there have been a handful of DG members who've greatly influenced me. you know who you are!
i don't think i could have risen to the next level of gardening without them.

My grandfather, he was a successful businessman and yet he still had time to tend his rose garden.
He and my mother used to have a yearly contest to see who could grow the best sweet peas! Other than those two things my family always had a japanese gardener who tended their yards. He was impressive to watch, as a child I would see him and his little crew of helpers come in and mow the lawn and neat everything up.

I voted in this pole aeons ago, but never got around to "answering"... shame on me.

Mostly, I'd say it was my Dad... or more specifically, the memory of my Dad. He always had what I consider "the most amazing, beautiful gardens" -- always edibles, outlined in Marigolds to keep bugs at bay. My only interest in the garden back then was at harvest time, 'cause I always LOVED to eat the tomatoes, peas, and green beans straight off the vine.
Fast-forward 20-+ some-odd years, and I found myself living next door to a wonderful old couple, and the husband, Tom, was always outside tending to something he was growing. I loved chatting with these two, about ANYthing, ANY time I could, so when it was chat-time with Tom, it was about gardening. He ... I guess you could say he sparked in me a love of gardening that I never knew I had... and reminded me of all those beloved times with my Dad. (the times that, back then, I didn't recognize as beloved, ya know what I mean?). He shared with me my first Sedum (which I still have!), and my first Jerusalem Cherry (which I still have!), and both of them have parented new babies which I cherish and adore. Tom has since passed, but I'm sure now he is in Heaven knowing that he is the main catalyst for my passion for gardening.

So, to answer the question: Dad started it, though the passion remained dormant for decades. Tom re-awakened it, watered it, and cleared the weeds from around it.

Pirl, thank you for sharing the pic of the "real" Pirl -- MY, what a beauty!! And such a beautiful story of inspiration. Actually, I've enjoyed reading everyone's stories, thank you all.

Memories that are sparked years later are the best. You realize how much people meant to you if the happiness still remains. Thank YOU for sharing that.

I've enjoyed each story, too. Each of you have kept the fires going.