05-25-2026, 07:56 AM
To my missing friends and teammates:
![[Image: 8223fcaf-71ad-4891-a3d2-6b64dc6a6944.jpg?rdr=true]](https://files.constantcontact.com/4fbc12bc001/8223fcaf-71ad-4891-a3d2-6b64dc6a6944.jpg?rdr=true)
![[Image: 3321c796-57b9-4a2a-a63b-c5007d01a259.png?rdr=true]](https://files.constantcontact.com/4fbc12bc001/3321c796-57b9-4a2a-a63b-c5007d01a259.png?rdr=true)
Before it became known as Memorial Day, the holiday was commonly called “Decoration Day” because families would decorate the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers gathered from home gardens and nearby fields.
Following the Civil War, communities across the country began holding springtime tributes where roses, lilacs, peonies, and other seasonal blooms were placed on graves as acts of remembrance and gratitude. In 1971, Memorial Day officially became a federal holiday observed on the last Monday in May.
In many ways, flowers became part of the language of memory. Long before store-bought bouquets were common, people often relied on whatever was blooming in their own yards. That connection between gardening and remembrance still quietly survives today. Every Memorial Day weekend, gardens across America are filled with many of the same flowers that generations before us once carried by hand to honor those they loved and remembered.
![[Image: c1778528-db87-4d08-9116-83ba7fd6408e.jpg?rdr=true]](https://files.constantcontact.com/4fbc12bc001/c1778528-db87-4d08-9116-83ba7fd6408e.jpg?rdr=true)
Before it became known as Memorial Day, the holiday was commonly called “Decoration Day” because families would decorate the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers gathered from home gardens and nearby fields.
Following the Civil War, communities across the country began holding springtime tributes where roses, lilacs, peonies, and other seasonal blooms were placed on graves as acts of remembrance and gratitude. In 1971, Memorial Day officially became a federal holiday observed on the last Monday in May.
In many ways, flowers became part of the language of memory. Long before store-bought bouquets were common, people often relied on whatever was blooming in their own yards. That connection between gardening and remembrance still quietly survives today. Every Memorial Day weekend, gardens across America are filled with many of the same flowers that generations before us once carried by hand to honor those they loved and remembered.
