Standard disclaimers about me not creating, owning, or making money off any of the characters.
Sam's Gardens
Rosie was not sure when she first noticed something odd in the gardens around Bag End, early that spring of 1420. Sam was very busy in that first year at home, going up and down the length and breadth of the Shire planting trees with the grains of dust from the tiny box the Elf woman had given him. He also helped clear the sheds from the gardens, and spent a lot of time cleaning the flower beds and kitchen garden of nails and bits of scrap lumber. She didn't have time to help outside. There was so much work for her to do at home, getting ready for her wedding, cleaning the awful mess inside Bag End, and getting Gaffer and Marigold into their new hole. Some days she felt she barely sat down!
Every time Sam came, which was often, he brought cuttings and bundles of roots in his pockets. He planted them in the sheltered seedling beds on the side of the hill, and tended them himself. The beds closest to the path and the road were abundant with familiar flowers and bedding plants - strawberries and snapdragons and tomatoes and more. But as her eyes strayed she noticed the rear beds did not have the familiar shapes and colors.
She also knew Sam talked to the travelers, just as Frodo did. Elves and Dwarves were more common on the roads than before. Sam knew they made her nervous, but he reassured her he would never leave her again. When he came home with odd bundles in his pockets, she began to know he had been talking to them. Soon she knew without asking that the visitors brought plants to Sam.
As the hole became clean and respectable again, Sam began transplanting his bedded plants, getting ready for Frodo to move back home. Rosie did direct him a little about the kitchen garden, which would be hers. She paid less attention to which plants he chose to place along the paths and under the windows, only noticing that he seemed to have some design in mind. Every bed and walk was edged with a tiny dark leafed plant she didn't recognize, with flower seedlings filling the rest of the bed.
She could see from the front door the little Mallorn tree growing in the great meadow at the bottom of the hill. Sam had told her of the beauty of the home of the Elves, but she had trouble believing how large it would be. The top of the Party Oak had been below the level of the door, but Sam told her the Mallorn would be taller than the hill! Now she watched him down there, a beloved speck, as he stopped marking out a new picnic area to speak with another Elf.
They were the tallest visitors, these Elves, though she knew most came at night. They seemed delighted with the little tree they towered over.
Sam came up the hill well before dinner, in a cheerful mood. He had another bundle in his hand. He stopped in the potting shed and spent some time setting each seed in a little cup of earth. He hummed as he worked, spreading the trays of cups with soft net to keep bugs and birds out. The trays then went into a sunny corner window, and he sprinkled them with fresh water.
"That Elf," he told Marigold as he came into Gaffer's hole, "Walked all the way here from Lothlorien, just to bring me those seeds!
He's on his way to the Havens, of course, but think of it! He took a detour to see our tree!" Marigold smiled at his joy, and served the stew.
Early the next day the seeds were already letting leaflets peep through the net when Sam checked them. The Elf had been right about how rapidly they would grow. Sam took the trays to his wheelbarrow, with some planting tools. Rosie watched him go down to the meadow again, and watched him begin to lay out seed beds around the Mallorn, raying out to the picnic area and the area of bark mulch that she knew would become a playground for their children. Sam had not wasted the dead trees as he replanted, but had set work crews to chopping them into firewood, and turned the extra bark and sticks into ground cover, free to any who could use them. He worked quickly, turning the dark soil up and covering the seedlings with the nets so birds would not damage them searching for worms.
Within a few days the little plants had no need of the protection. They had grown as quickly at the Mallorn, covering the ground with soft green. Sam came, shyly, and asked Rose to walk with him. The air in the meadow seemed scented, and she could see tiny flower buds already forming. "Elanor, and niphredil." Rose looked at Sam, and realized he was naming the flowers. His eyes seemed dark with memory, and he was not looking at her. "These grow under the Mallorn trees in Lothlorien. In the Winter they bloom golden and pale green, so that the grass is covered. I do not know if they will bloom in the snow, for it is colder here than there, but I expect they will bloom in early Spring and late Fall. The Elf thought the tree would like to have them about its feet." This may have been the longest speech Rosie had ever heard from Sam, and she was astonished. Who ever heard of a tree 'liking' flowers? But in the coming days Sam seemed right, for both the tree and the flowers grew well.
Visitors to the memorial garden that Sam put around the grave of those killed in the Battle Of Bywater, also noticed a new plant. In the grass grew a white flower like a tiny star, that Merry had brought from Rohan. It bloomed in all seasons. He called it 'simbelmyn ', or evermind, and seemed sad.
At Bag End Rosie stopped one day and really looked at what was growing there. Familiar flowers seemed framed by something else, a plant with long, dark-green leaves and tiny flowers. Familiar scents were mingled with something, wholesome? Suddenly she knew it.
"Sam!" She cried in surprise, "You've planted the beds around the hole with a WEED!"
Sam shook his head. "It's no weed, lass, though most people have forgotten it. It's "Athelas", which we sometimes call "Kingsfoil."
She knew that name, but looked puzzled still. "We've forgotten it? And you learned something about it on your travels?"
Sam nodded. "It's good for headaches, and more. In the hands of the King it can save lives. It saved Frodo more than once, and me at the end." He spoke this last bit softly, because she didn't like to hear of his great dangers. He went on quickly, "I thought as how Frodo was strengthened by it before, perhaps it could keep the air here healthier for him. And I remembered a bit someone not far from here spoke once, that gave me the idea. She said, 'Nothing passes door or window here save moonlight and starlight and the wind off the hill-top'
I hoped that this could keep the air wholesome, healthy for Frodo." He actually blushed, as he said the last, and Rosie loved him more than ever. All Sam ever seemed to do was think of others!
She didn't know if Athelas really was any good, but the plants seemed sturdy and the dark leaves made a nice frame for the flowers. Now that she was actually looking, she realized Sam had also planted it as a border around the picnic area, and the playground, and many other spots around their homes. Its scent became a familiar part of the background of her life. And, mindful of Sam's words about its virtues, the leaves became part of her herb-lore.
Lynn B Hocraffer, Feb 21, 2004