An essayist once penned "It is because every morning breaks with the hopes, expectations, uncertainties, and suspense just as the first morning after the world came into existence, each morning is so beautiful." Mornings spent in the garden are infused with all of those facets, as Spanish Fort golden-aged gardener Ottie Dailey will tell you. Ottie, ninety- two years old and proud of it, recognizes that as we grow older, all of us tend to let our gaze fall backwards in time. Gardening reverses that direction. Expecting and looking for the changes in every plant in the garden every day as it develops and grows is a wonderful psychological and spiritual experience. The physical efforts of gardening gives one the moderate exercise so essential and often neglected in advancing years.

With previous homes in Miami, Mobile and Spanish Fort, Ottie has always nurtured a garden with her husband, James, a builder, who died in 2010. They enjoyed a long marriage of sixty three years and have four children, three of which live in the Spanish Fort area and keep an eye on the active nonagenarian Mama. Two cats and a currently unwelcome visiting raccoon complete the family.

An active Baldwin County Master Gardener, Ottie credits eating well-she cooks for herself, moderate exercise, staying involved with kind folks and maintaining a positive outlook with keeping her young enough, stamina wise and mentally fresh enough to continue tending and enjoying her garden. She also is a firm believer in the "never stop learning" philosophy, remaining a questioning student into her ninth decade. Positive thinking books and devotionals sit on her coffee table and are read daily along with her many gardening publications. She has been asked to lead a devotional talk every Sunday at her church and gladly does so. Her bright mind and frequent tinkling laughter both charm and inspire.

Ottie is proof that working in a home garden, observing it daily for the wonderful changes Mother Nature brings, enjoying its aesthetics and discussing all of this with like-minded friends goes a long way, not only in keeping one agreeably occupied, but also in self actualization in these golden years. She knows that plants can trigger nostalgic memories from days of yore, and so, has maintained the practice of bringing seeds and cuttings from her old homes with her to help establish the patchwork garden of memories that she so enjoys today.

Ottie's love of gardening flourished back when she was eleven years old and her beloved Aunt Margaret introduced her to the beauty of flowers such as larkspur, sweet alyssum and johnny-jump-ups and showed her how to root hydrangeas which produced flowers right away to delight the astonished girl. She nurtured seeds from her aunt for decades, fostering her devotion to propagating and rooting from old plants, rather than buying new ones from the nursery.

Ottie fondly remembers, even as a four-year-old kindergartener, walking to school and delightedly picking wildflowers along the way, oblivious of the need to arrive at school on time.

This dear lady enjoys growing her roses, including floribundas, climbing varieties and knockouts and shares her secret for plentiful, gorgeous blooms - horse manure. "It gives the roses just what they need," she confides. She loves the traditional Southern gardens including Rose of Sharon, azaleas, sweet olives, camellias, banana shrubs, hydrangeas, four o'clocks, cannas and daylilies. Many of these are transplants from her former gardens and provide charming vignettes of a gardener's love and devotion.

Along with the rose garden in her front yard, Ottie points out a brilliantly-colored deep orange bushy lantana which she transplanted, fragrant gardenia shrubs, azaleas, camellias and sunflowers. Such a colorful welcome to the visitor that assures that a happy active gardener lives here!

Ottie chooses plants that are relatively easy-care, lots of perennials that require low maintenance and do not need constant division or watering, although she does attend to these as needed.

Gardeners, as studies have proven, usually eat more vegetables than non-gardeners. Ottie has a great vegetable garden including tomatoes, peppers, cabbages and grows healthful blueberries, has a trellis full of scuppernongs and maintains a large fig tree.

This wise gardener knows that seeds grow more than just plants. They grow communities, relationships and memories. Ottie shares, in the tradition of her beloved aunt, seeds and cuttings with friends and fellow gardeners. She rarely arrives at a Master Gardener meeting without some plant to share. Chores such as watering and weeding and propagating are performed in the late afternoons after the heat of the day has faded somewhat. Her garden is a well-tended treasure. Ottie is a treasure.

If circumstances and God so conspire, old age will be a fact for many of us. But, as it is for Ottie Dailey, our remaining years can be a magnificent creation-a magnum opus, a zesty celebration of the final years, tempered with fortitude, optimism and wisdom gleaned over many decades.

As we grow older, it becomes easier to admire simplicity in all facets of life. Through the simplicity of planting a seed or transplanting a beloved shrub or flower, we achieve a welcome serenity that allows us to savor our remaining years. Those who do not garden, while they may grow old, too, seem to be unlucky because, as they age, many former happinesses will inevitably be lost. Ottie Dailey retains an immensely valuable thing - the happiness of gardening, which is a hardy perennial, capable of withstanding the frosts of impending winter.