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The final narrator of Seedfolks, Florence is an older Black woman and a “watcher”. Her arthritis makes it too painful for her to bend down and grow vegetables herself, but she nevertheless enjoys watching the garden grow and supporting its efforts. Florence is also the person who explains the origin of the novel’s title. “Seedfolks,” she explains, are the first members of a family or a community to settle somewhere. She explains how her own “seedfolks,” her great-grandparents, were freed slaves who walked all the way from Louisiana to Colorado. She sees all the people who start plots in the community garden as “seedfolks,” planting their hopes and dreams for the future and developing the community in the process. Florence tells her story from at least a year after most of the novel’s other events. She explains how the community garden eventually becomes the pride and joy of the community—and, for better or for worse, contributes to rising property and apartment values in the area.
Florence Quotes in Seedfolks
The Seedfolks quotes below are all either spoken by Florence or refer to Florence. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 13: Florence Quotes
I think of them when I see any of the people who started the garden on Gibb Street. They’re seedfolks too. I’m talking about that first year, before there were spigots and hoses, and the toolshed, and new soil. And before the landlords started charging more for apartments that look on the garden.
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It was a little Oriental girl, with a trowel and a plastic bag of lima beans. I didn’t recognize her. It didn’t matter. I felt as happy inside as if I’d just seen the first swallow of spring. Then I looked up. There was the man in the rocker.
We waved and waved to each other.
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Get the entire Seedfolks LitChart as a printable PDF.
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Florence Character Timeline in Seedfolks
The timeline below shows where the character Florence appears in Seedfolks. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 13: Florence
Florence’s great-grandparents walked from Louisiana to Colorado in 1859. They were freed slaves and wanted to...
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Florence thinks of her great-grandparents when she sees the people who started the garden on Gibb...
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Florence would’ve been working in the garden if she didn’t suffer from arthritis in her hands....
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Florence thinks of her grandmother’s childhood sampler, which reads “Be Not Solitary, Be Not Idle.” Following...
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Florence thinks that it’s sad to watch the garden turn brown every fall. The first year...
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It was cold that winter. Whenever Florence passed the garden covered in snow, she’d try to remember how it looked back in...
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...the gardeners. When the snow finally melts, it reveals last year’s leaves in the garden. Florence is overjoyed to be able to go out without a heavy coat and boots.
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It’s still too early to plant anything, though. Florence begins to wonder if anyone will come. It’s possible that no one is interested anymore,...
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