Asha Gomez’s childhood was full of flowers. “Kerala is one of the greenest states in India—they call it God’s Own Country for a reason,” says the chef, author, and owner of Tulip & Tea, a high-tea shop and event space in Conyers, Georgia. But all of that faded to the background when she moved to New York City as a teenager, and years later, when she landed in Georgia, a young mother working crazy hours as a chef and restaurateur. “You learn to move fast and speak sharply,” she says. “What I didn’t know was how to make time for softness.”
So she started gardening. “People see the roses climbing, the hydrangeas heavy with blooms, the daffodils holding their faces to the sun, and assume I’ve been at this for decades,” she says. In truth, Gomez taught herself over just the past few years, bingeing on European gurus Monty Don, Sarah Raven, and Arthur Parkinson to learn as much as possible. Now in the plantings that surround her home, crocuses and daffodils start the spring show. Then tulips and foxgloves bloom, making way for lilies with heavy fragrance and then cosmos, dahlias, and at last, anemones. “Every morning, my son makes me coffee, and I head out to the garden with my clippers,” she says. “I cut roses, hydrangeas, whatever’s ready. The flowers fill my home, my tearoom, and the tables where I develop recipes.” This spring, she’ll begin opening her garden for tours by appointment so she can share the joy with others. “The garden has taught me to cut flowers at their peak, not wait for the right time. The point isn’t to keep them forever, it’s to witness them fully while they’re here.”
>> Get more inspiration from plant mavens making the most of every blossom:
The Friendly Sage: Hilton Carter
The Flower Savant: Lucy Hunter
Jenny Everett is a contributing editor at Garden & Gun, and has been writing the What’s in Season column since 2009. She has also served as an editor at Women’s Health, espnW, and Popular Science, among other publications. She lives in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, with her husband, David; children, Sam and Rosie; and a small petting zoo including a labrador retriever, two guinea pigs, a tortoise, and a fish.
