Love in the air around the garden
LOVE is in the air this week, particularly on St Valentine’s day. Back in the middle ages, when mid February was considered the begining of the mating season for birds, people verbally at least uttered some greeting of love on the day.
The garden has long been associtated with love, lovers and romance abd of all the plants in the garden roses have come to signify love and romance more than any other. This modern association is largely due to the Victorians but the Romans symbolised their god of love Venus with the rose.
Probably because of this link with romance we have been left with a catelogue of pretty dubious names attached to roses. I can’t find fault with the likes of Dearest; Enchantress; Sweet Memories and Romance all are acceptable in their genre and genera, if you’ll pardon the pun. Even the semantics of the rose names Scent from Heaven and Scentimental I can understand if not cherish. But a step too far and far too sweet are names like Cuddle Up; Pucker Up;Your’e Beautiful; My Valentine which is just mercenary and the crassly named Sexy Rexy.
Of the latter group of roses luckily you are only likely to come across Rosa ‘Sexy Rexy’ in your local garden centres. And dispite the name this is a rose of many excellent qualities. It is a florabunda type rose with large clusters of soft pink flowers and it repeat blooms exceptionally well. Its flowers are lightly scented and it is an exremely hardy disease resistant rose. It is well worth growing so don’t let the name put you off, just tell admirers its called something else.
Of course not everything in the garden or in romance is rosy. Unrequited love, love forlorn and angst. These can be found in the garden also. Amaranthus caudatus commonly known as Love- lies- bleeding is an annual with red tassles of flowers with a name that says it all. The lovely perennial group of plants Dicenta also tug at the heart strings with their common name Bleeding hearts. This common name has never been more apt as the flowers are a perfect heart shape with a tiny drop shape dripping from the bottom point of the heart.
But let’s stick with the positive and celebrate plants like Nigella damascena a self seeding hardy annual with blue, white or pink flowers that has the beautiful common name of Love-inthe-Mist. The ever charming Myosotis or Forgetme-not carries a sentiment in its name we can all relate to. Dierama a lovely perennial known as Angel’s fishing rods because of its long graceful arching wiry flower stems. Another perennial Catananche caerulea with its cornflower like flowers that are great for cutting or drying goes by the hopeful name of Cupid’s Dart
It’s not just flowers that get in on the garden romance. How about turning up at your loved one’s, not with a dozen red roses, but a stool of Rhubarb ‘ Valentine’. Could go either way, but you’d want to know them very well all the same and probably not suitable for a first date. Pomme d’amour the Love apple is said to have aphrodisiac properties by the French, for us the humble tomato has to do, and it is a fruit we are very fond of. Strawberries are also on the aphrodisiac food list as the variety ‘Cupid’ no doubt bears out.
Finally the climbing plant Passion flower [Passiflora caerulea]. This is not really about the flippant passion light heartedly written about Valentine’s day above but it has more to do with Easter as its flowers and flower parts relate in legend to the Passion of Jesus Christ. Ten petal , ten loyal disciples, three stigma , the nails on the cross, five anthers, the wounds of Christ, the corona, the crown of thorns and so on. The blooms of the passion flower are quite spectacular and beautiful and as a gift of love nothing could be appropriate. There is a magnificant white variety called ‘Constance Elliot’ that I think is even more lovely than the species. Plant in full sun on a wall or pergola in a sheltered position.