Delicate, artistic and beautiful, the newest addition to the Heartfelt Gifts location at Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton offers families a living keepsake of remembrance after the loss of a loved one.

Memory Seed cards are the original creation of Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton Landscaper Miriam Wolf. The cards are now being produced by hospice volunteers. Each card is uniquely handcrafted from discarded envelopes and paper recycled into a new paper material. This homemade paper may include natural materials such as flowers, fern, mica mineral flakes, seeds and dryer lint. And each of the cards contains flower seeds harvested from the beautiful cleome spider flowers on the Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton campus. When planted, the paper dissolves into the soil and the seeds germinate to produce flower seedlings.

Cleome spider flowers are annuals that re-seed prolifically and return year after year. Cleomes will grow and produce in full sun to part shade locations and do not need any particular type of soil, other than well-draining. Flowers bloom in summer and may last until frost. Once established, they are drought tolerant and hold up well during summer’s scorching heat. Planting cleomes in the vegetable garden can even help attract beneficial insects and may deter some of the bad bugs that damage crops.

As one visitor wrote in the family journal at our Hospice House solarium, “Plants like trees are strong because of the roots that extend a long way down, away from our view. This is like family. You can’t always see the connection, but it is there.”

Memory Seed cards are available for sale at Heartfelt Gifts, located on the garden level of Ohio’s Hospice of Dayton.