"She had a fondness for Gardenias." Source?

Parent Cafe
61

<p>This is getting mystifying ! People have mentioned Jane Austen, Byron, etc.</p>

<p>But do gardenias even grow in England? For some reason, I don’t place them there.</p>

62

<p>I can’t believe Byron would have known about jelly jars. Or Jane Austen, for that matter. And the writing style suits neither of them. In fact, I can’t think of an English writer who would write like that.</p>

63

<p>“The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece,
Where burning Sappho put gardenias in jelly jars…”</p>

<p>Nah, I don’t think it works. In England, ‘jelly’ is what we call Jello. And gardenias, as tropical plants, probably don’t grow there. I vote for it being an American greeting card original.</p>

64

<p>marite and booklady, I agree. My English friends and relatives tend to use the word “jam” instead of “jelly” . They use jelly in a difference meaning entirely. I vote that the source of the quote, whether literary, cinematic or Hallmark, is most likely American, and most probably southern.</p>

65

<p>I just looked in Bartlett’s Quotations and it’s not there. So it’s not classic at all. Probably contemporary.</p>

66

<p>It reminds me of this thing we read in Lit about a mirror imagining the life of a lady. I don’t have the book to look it up and see anymore though.</p>

67

<p>I think we already decided earlier in the thread that it was not literature.</p>

68

<p>Well, they were in England, brought over from the US, but I agree they probably weren’t in jelly jars.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>(The plant was named for Mr. Garden. Funny - I would have expected it to be named after the noun garden, or from the same latin root, or something.)
<a href=“http://www.azcentral.com/home/garden/articles/0729gardenias29.html[/url]”>http://www.azcentral.com/home/garden/articles/0729gardenias29.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

69

<p>What about literature in translation? The “magic” thing makes it sound kind of Latin American to me.</p>

70

<p>So I confess to doing my fair share of googling various bits and pieces of this thing too with no luck other than the same two postings.</p>

<p>Now do tell, ADad, how in the heck did you come by it in the first place to get us started on this world wide web scavenger type hunt?</p>

71

<p>^he said he saw it on a greeting card at Barnes and Noble. no copyright or attribution on the back</p>

72

<p>dogwood23: for background, see my posts #25, #28, and #31.</p>

<p>Edit: (cross posted with Mallomar Cookie, sorry)</p>

73

<p>here are two more trails to follow. It’s past my bedtime, but maybe someone out there wants to keep searching. check out these links–“fondness for gardenias” is highlighted on the page:</p>

<p><a href=“http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:Ry9-kyHhKNgJ:www.halfbakery.com/idea/Scent_20Vial_20Giveaways+fondness+for+gardenias&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us[/url]”>http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:Ry9-kyHhKNgJ:www.halfbakery.com/idea/Scent_20Vial_20Giveaways+fondness+for+gardenias&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:bvi_ccPIe4sJ:theamazingjourney.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html+fondness+for+gardenias&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us[/url]”>http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:bvi_ccPIe4sJ:theamazingjourney.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html+fondness+for+gardenias&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

74

<p>Sorry, lost track of the details in my doggedly determined search for the source of the quote. The devil is always in the detail. Shame on me 'cause it tends to bug me when I think others aren’t paying attention!! I’m always the next person to spill at our house right after chastising a child for being sloppy.</p>

75

<p>Maybe there IS no source for the quote and it was written by the greeting card “writer”. People are paid to come up with these cards and the various poems and prose…</p>

76

<p>Sure doesn’t look like it was written for a greeting card. I don’t know what occasion it would serve. Not that it has to serve any occasion, but…</p>

<p>Adad, did it have a drawing or photo or anything other than the letters? I’ve even gone as far as looking for the card itself on B+N .com.</p>

77

<p>There are a lot of greeting cards that are not for an “occasion” that have poems and photos, etc. on them.</p>

78

<p>Bridges of Madison County? I don’t have a copy of it so I can’t check. One of the songs on the film soundtrack is Blue Gardenia performed by Dinah Washington.</p>

<p>By the way, did the greeting card have an illustration or photograph accompanying the quote? And did the quote have quotation marks?</p>

<p>now it really IS past my bedtime.</p>

79

<p>No illustration or photograph or quotation marks. No formal attribution.</p>

80

<p>Without the quotation marks and without an attribution, it makes me think it was written by the greeting card writer.</p>

<p>A lot of those cards that have quotes, attribute the quotes. So, when they don’t, it may likely be the writing of a greeting card “composer” and there are a lot of cards like THAT out there.</p>