These beautiful yellow flowers have begun to bloom and grow in my raised garden beds, and for the first time in my life, I knew this morning what kind of flowers they are.

Thanks to my new and many friends in the gardening community, I have figured out a way to learn the names of the flowers I am growing, something I have not been able to do ever in my life.

I was diagnosed with dyslexia until fairly recently, and so I never really learned how to live with it, just to avoid it. It was very frustrating to me to love these flowers but never to know what they were called. I just couldn’t absorb and retain that kind of information.

Then I got these garden beds and swallowed some pride and asked people to help me identify them. The first flowers I did this with were my coreopsis, a score of gardeners told me these were most likely coreopsis, in the Asteraceae family, also called tickweed.

When I saw them blooming this weekend and took their photo, I was amazed to remember the term coreopsis (I take photos and put them in a folder with names.)

I also can look up flowers and plants on my Iphone 13. But I am more likely to remember if I read the words repeatedly.

The gardeners are kind and helpful, they don’t strut or patronize or make me feel stupid, they just tell me the names and some useful information. Dyslexia is tricky and different for everyone but one of the ways to learn is reputation, repeating the name of something without letting too much time go by.

So far, I’ve learned three flowers and their names  – Nasturtium, Prim Rose (I planted a bunch more in my garden), and now Coreopsis. I may forget them from time to time, but I can always ask for help. There is no shame in it.

So thanks. I love the gardening I am doing, I love planting and growing flowers, and I love giving them to people. And I really love knowing what they are when people ask me rather than shrugging and saying I don’t really know.

So thanks.