By Kat Eftink
When you think of love languages, you probably think about the five different ways we express or give love: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. But who says love languages only apply to people?
They apply to plants too. Replace words of affirmation with the amount of sunlight. Switch acts of service to the amount of water, or change receiving gifts to the nutrients in the soil– those are the plant love languages.
Lori and John McDaniel own Country Gardens– the plant nursery at the Agricenter International in Memphis, and after 22 years of running the nursery, Lori learned that each plant wants to be taken care of in their own way.
“There’s some plants that like it on the dry side,” Lori said. “Then you have some plants, you water them and drench them every single day, like a Sun Patient will get weepy and say, ‘water me.’ They tell you, they speak to you.”
It’s just as important to learn your plant’s love language as it is your partner’s. Lori explained that your plant isn’t wilting because you don’t have a green thumb, but it’s wilting because you just don’t know how to care for it.
“It’s about educating people,” she said. “And that’s what we do here at Country Gardens.”
Lori’s been connected with nature her whole life. As a child, she made mud pies for all her cousins, and now she encourages her 13 grandkids to run barefoot outside– to feel the cool-dewy grass and squishy mud between their toes.
“I don’t wear gloves,” Lori said. “I want my hands to be in that soil. I want to feel it. I want to be grounded in it.”
She believes in the importance of connecting with the earth and spending time in the natural sunlight, which she refers to as “God-given liquid vitamin D sunshine.” Both she and her husband, John, agree that Country Gardens has provided them with the chance to share God’s love and light.
Several years ago, a young couple visited their nursery during Christmas time, and they were looking at the selection of small tabletop Christmas trees. The woman was sobbing– she couldn’t hold herself together. John walked up to the young couple and put his arm around the woman.
“I said, ‘Baby is everything okay? Is there anything I can do?’”
She told John that their first child just passed away. The couple was looking for a small Christmas tree to bring to the graveyard. After that moment, John promised the couple each Christmas he would give them their tree to honor their baby.
John and Lori’s love language is giving to others. Just as they understand the nuanced expressions of love among their plants at Country Gardens, they extend their care and compassion to those who visit their nursery.
“We build family traditions here,” Lori said.
Visit Country Gardens at 7858 Smythe Farm Rd, Memphis, TN 38120 for all your plant needs, and follow us on Instagram for more!