Flowers, memories and madeleine cookies

Not to get all Proustian on you, but it’s an inescapable fact that plants and gardens connect us with our personal histories.

Like the crumbs of a madeleine that inspired Marcel Proust’s masterpiece, “Remembrance of Things Past,” for many people flowers trigger strong memories.

Orchid

Several readers commented recently that summer blooms take them back to their childhoods or remind them of their mothers, grandmothers or other people they felt close to.

For me, there are lots of back-yard blossoms that rewind time: Lily of the valley, tulips, grape hyacinth (muscari) and tiger lilies. Also, Queen Anne’s lace, lilac and milkweed pods.

To explore this little corner of nature and emotion, I checked in with Stuart Fischoff, Ph.D., professor emeritus of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles, and senior editor of the Journal of Media Psychology, mediapsych.net.

Flowers’ fragrance is pivotal to the recall process, especially with intense emotional experiences.

“Our sense of smell is one of the most primitive senses of a human being. It has stronger potential to bring back vivid memories than most other senses," says Fischoff.

“But as human beings have evolved, we’ve discounted or discredited the information that smell provides. We eliminate bad smells and we recoil when animals smell each other.

“So when these memories come back [through scent] they come with a vividness that’s electrifying.”

A sight or smell may take us back to our earliest days. At about age 5, says Fischoff, our verbal memory kicks in; prior to that, memory functions in the visual and non-verbal realm.

Before we acquire language, taste, touch and sight are extremely powerful. But as we age, those sense-based memories are harder to access.

There’s also a distinction between familiar, frequently recalled memories, which we see through the lens of the present, and sudden flashbacks to long ago that startle us with their freshness and clarity.

Chance events can trigger non-conscious recollection (not to be confused with repressed memory a la Freud) as can wafts of a fading summer flower. “Sometimes they’re frightening and sometimes they’re beautiful,” Fischoff says.

In the case of flowers, my money’s on beautiful.

Flower Fact of the Day: If your camellia bushes have pale yellow leaves, they need a dose of fertilizer containing chelated iron. That’s the tip of the week from the National Gardening Association, nationalgarden.org. Another great resource for gardeners is New York Botanical Gardens’ home gardening online guide: nybg.org/hgc_online.

Jacqueline - Editor

August 28, 2008

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Comments (5)

Comments

Angela

I remember the smell of Jasmine in summer as a kid. My mother had it growing on a trellis on our patio. It gives me a calm feeling whenever I smell that.

Angela

My mother had jasmine growing on a trellis by our patio and that fragrance brings back good memories.

Christie

Neither of my parents ever liked flower arrangements. Both came from rural areas in the Depression Era and the only time they ever saw floral arrangements was at funerals so they equated them with death and sadness.

Luckily, I never picked up their aversion. As I child and teen, I thought it was romantic, elegant and classy to have flowers arranged artistically. I took books from the library on flower arranging. I visited a florist for my "Career Investigation" report. And when I started dated, I reveled in every box of roses that arrived, every corsage and every Prom bouquet.

Elizabeth M.

We had a bunch of lavender growing right by the side door to the house so every time we'd come and go, we could smell it. It was heavenly!

Kate

How funny, my memory is of Jasmine too. Sitting in my car in Hawaii, waiting for my husband to get off work, smelling the beautiful flowers.

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