The Shrub in the Back Yard

Do any of you recall the shrub/bush that was in the back yard of Truesdale? The yard had a sweet plum tree, a Bing cherry tree, a peach tree (that never produced a single peach in my memory) and a Bartlett pear tree. I ate those pears all winter long from the jars Grandma would put up. Grandpa could grow anything. I digress....

Back to the shrub...
It was about 2/3rds of the way to the back fence from the house on the DeCastris side of the property. The following is what I remember of that odd plant and its history.

I used to have to plow the back yard each year with a pitch fork (twice because that is what it took). Then we would rake the plot with a hard rake and plant tomatoes and peppers. We planted (for reference sake) about 40 tomatoes and 25 peppers. They (the Warino patriarchs) where very dependent on the garden for food and that carried to my childhood. The need for food production from the yard was clearly very real to them. The plantings where done from the prior year crop's seeds and raised from seedlings in the "hot box." I believe the original seeds came from Italy with one (or both of our grandparents.)

The shrub was an odd plant, as it was wild in a place where all was tame. Once while I was working the plow, (read pitchfork,) I kept running into a stray branch of said shrub. Irritated I reached out and broke off the branch. Grandma gasped, in a way she rarely did. When she could speak again, she explained the bush was very special and that I should be more careful. The bush it seemed was a combination of many varieties of flowering shrubs which Grandpa had grafted together. The bush was ALWAYS in bloom. Various blossoms of yellow, white, pink, but mostly red. Just when the blooms of one branch would being fading away, the flowers of another would be just about to pop into full view. The bush was clearly visible from the window in the pantry. I was never sure if the shrub was purely utilitarian to draw bees to the garden or designed to make Grandma happy as she washed the dishes. James had a special knack with gardening. Clearly he could grow anything (see above). What he did grow is fascinating.

This story remains perhaps the most practical and romantic I have heard of the "Gid" and "Fanny".