WHAT'S BLOOMING? Spring Flowers and Flower Festivals

Story and photos by Vivienne Mackie (with research help from Keith Kellett)
Photographs by Keith Kellett and Vivienne Mackie

“The Flowers that bloom in the Spring, tra lah...”(Gilbert and Sullivan, ‘Patience’ 1881)

Spring and spring flowers have inspired many poems, songs and stories, from the Bible, to Shakespeare, to Mao Tse-Tung, as well as festivals and flower shows. Why is this? Well, besides the inherent beauty of flowers, during the last few weeks of winter people wait eagerly for the first signs of spring, a time when the hardships of winter are past. Bright color returns to the outdoors, and in many schools, children grow daffodils and other flowers in small pots. Among the clearest signs of spring is the appearance of buds on the branches of trees and the blooming of flowers such as crocuses, daffodils, and tulips. Snowdrops appear very early (see Keith Kellett’s short article on Snowdrops at the end).

ST. DAVID’S DAY, March 1, Wales
Daffodils are an important part of the Welsh celebration of St. David’s Day, on March 1st. This festival honors a Christian saint, but its origins lie in the ancient Celtic celebrations of the end of winter. On this day many people in Wales wear a daffodil or leek pinned to their clothes. The spring flower and the winter vegetable mark the passing of winter into spring.

• ”When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils...”
  - (William Wordsworth, ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’, 1807)



• ”I never saw daffodils so beautiful...(they) reeled and danced...with the wind that blew upon them over the lake.”
  - (Dorothy Wordsworth, ‘The Grassmere Journals’, 1802)

Many people have heard this famous song, “Tulips from Amsterdam..” Later in the spring there are flower festivals in many parts of the world. Possibly the most famous of these is the TULIP FESTIVAL in the Netherlands, where the tulip fields are a blaze of color in late April. The Netherlands is one of the world’s largest exporters of flowers and bulbs, and is renowned for tulips.  This holiday was created as an opportunity to showcase their products for the tourists. The festival is usually in the last week of April and the first week of May when the flowers are at their peak. The biggest day of the festival is the Sunday between the two weeks, called “Bulb Sunday”. There are parades of floats decorated with flowers in many towns, and people are outdoors purchasing flowers, viewing the flower mosaic contests, or watching auto races, which have also become part of the festivities. The flower mosaics are reminiscent of the flower-bedecked floats of the Rose Bowl Parade in California. A very special parade is the one from Noordwijk to Haarlem on April 26, a distance of about 25 miles. It arrives in the evening; the floats will be on display throughout the weekend and will be lit up at night.

Just as famous are the KEUKENHOF SPRING GARDENS. March 21-May 18, 2003

Billed as the greatest flower show on earth! The gardens have some 80 acres of winding paths, gurgling streams, gushing fountains, placid ponds, and more flowers than you have ever seen in one place at one time.

See www.keukenhof.nl Another fun option: How about taking a Holland Tulip River Cruise?

The ORCHID FESTIVAL in the Royal Botanical gardens at Kew, London, England, will be held this year, 2003, from February 15-March 16. This year’s theme is “In Search of Paradise”, inspired by the adventures of Victorian plant hunters. Fifteen thousand fresh blooms will be sent from Singapore. If you have ever visited Bangkok, or anywhere in Thailand, you’ll know how delicately beautiful orchids can be.

See www.rbgkew.org.uk Kew is also famous for lilacs, as we can see in this song: “Go down to Kew in lilac-time, in lilac-time, in lilac-time; Go down to Kew in lilac-time (it isn’t far from London).” (Alfred Noyes, ‘Barrel Organ’. 1880-1958)

Toward the end of May the CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW is held in London, England. When this first opened in 1913 it was called the Great Spring Show. Today it is a huge exhibition that contains many new varieties of plants and ideas for designing beautiful gardens.

CHERRY BLOSSOMS

Some of the most beautiful spring flowers in the world are the blossoms of the cherry tree. In early April, delicate pink and while flowers decorate these trees and lie scattered across the ground where the wind has blown them. The cherry blossom (sakura) is the national flower of Japan and a very tangible sign of the coming spring. In Japan, people like to walk or picnic in the parks at this time to celebrate the beauty and fragrance of spring. Sakura is not a national holiday but Japanese people arrange their schedules so they can have time to go into the countryside, or at least attend elaborate “cherry viewing” sessions. “Sakura! Sakura!' “Cherry trees! Cherry trees! Bloom so bright in April breeze, Like a mist or floating cloud. Fragrance fills the air around. Shadows flit along the ground. Come, o come! Come, o come! Come, see cherry trees!” - (Traditional Japanese song)

Cherry blossom viewing begins around the beginning of March in the south of Japan, and moves north every few days. The Japan Meteorological Agency publishes a list of the best places each day. Washington DC’s famous cherry trees, planted along the Tidal Basin, flower around early April. The original trees were given to the city by the Japanese people.

LILACS

These sweet-smelling blossoms are also a wonderfully fragrant announcement of better weather. Rochester, New York has a Lilac festival, May 9-18, 2003. The city has a world-famous collection of lilacs - in Highland Park the 1,200 lilac bushes (the first planted in 1892) bloom “with a floral rainbow of more than 500 varieties - from deepest purple to purest white, from lightly scented to irresistibly aromatic”. Many varieties are exported around the world. One, called “Rochester”, is a gorgeous creamy white. You can see (and smell) the lilacs. And pansies, azaleas, rhododendrons, magnolias. A flower feast! The festival also has a race, the Lilac 10K, music concerts, activities for kids, and arts and crafts shows.

See www.lilacfestival.com - go to ‘flowers’ for all the information you can imagine about lilacs.

BLUEBONNETS

“A Blanket of Bluebonnets” in central Texas. These gorgeous flowers peak in April, and are a true show put on by nature. Bluebonnets are the state flower of Texas, and two species are not found growing naturally anywhere else in the world. The flowers can also be white, pink, lavender and maroon, and they are also known as buffalo clover, wolf flower, and conejo (rabbit). Special Bluebonnet Trails have been developed, some formal, some informal, especially along highways and country roads.

See http://austin.about.com/library/essentials/bluebonnets Lady Bird Johnson Wild Flower Center is world-famous, where these and other wild flowers bloom.

See www.wildflower.org

VISIT OTHER FLOWER SHOWS TO CATCH A BREATH OF SPRING

• The largest indoor flower show is the New England Spring Flower Show, at Boston’s Bayside Exposition Center (March 15-23, 2003). The theme this year, 2003, is “The Garden Journey”.
  See www.masshort.org



• The oldest flower show in North America is the Philadelphia Flower Show (March 2-9, 2003), in the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The theme this year is “Festival de las Flores”, and there are many ideas and plants from Puerto Rico and Mexico (and mariachi music). There are various sections, such as: Learn to garden; Learn to cook; Learn to arrange flowers; Relax with friends at the Garden Tea area; Plan the wedding bouquet of your dreams.
  See www.philaflowershow.com



• In Canada they have a tulip festival too, the OTTAWA TULIP FESTIVAL, held in Ottawa and Gatineau (May 1-19, 2003).  The theme this year is “Tulips Down Under. G’Day Australia”, where they will also celebrate Australia’s tulips and its Tulip Festival, The Canberra Floriade. (Remember that spring down under is around August and September). The Tulip Route runs the 15km between Ottawa and Gatineau (supposedly there are 300,000 blooms), but the main festivities are in and around Mayor’s Hill Park. There is a Tulip Art Garden, concerts and family entertainment, a Parade of Lights, the Rideau Canal Flotilla, the Tulip Explosion Floral Show and a Tulip Ball.
  See www.tulipfestival.ca

GALANTHOMANIA
Written and Photograph by Keith Kellett.

For the first few weeks in February, many people in Britain are stricken with galanthomania. This is the time the first snowdrops (galanthus nivalis) appear; not really a sign that Winter is over, but possibly a signal of the beginning of the end.

In some places, snowdrops grow profusely in woods and on road-sides. There don’t seem to be as many as there used to be...is that because there aren’t so many of the damp, shady places they like; is it because of greedy people taking them wholesale for their gardens...or is it an exaggerated memory of ‘the good old days’? Many gardens which are normally open in summer, often open to the public for a few days in early February if they have a substantial display of snowdrops. One is the award-winning Heale Gardens, to the north of Salisbury, where the Rasch family are justifiably proud of their ‘snowdrop walk’ on the banks of the Avon River. The gardens are well worth a visit at any time of the year; the Japanese Garden, with the biggest authentic tea-house outside Japan, was laid out in the 19th century by a former Ambassador to Tokyo, and supposedly looks beautiful on a misty Autumn morning.