Easter Flowers

As an important Christian festival, Easter has often been associated with floral gifts and bouquets. The white Easter Lily has represented love and hope. Its single flower atop the stem indicates Christ’s Resurrection after His crucifixion. Legend holds that where drops of His blood fell, grew a Lily. In Catholic nations, some attribute the love and purity to His Mother, the Virgin Mary and fill their churches with Lilies at Easter-time.

Contemporary arrangements now include some or all of the following, depending on the meaning you wish to convey at Easter.

The sweetly fragranced Daisy, with its purity and placidness, suit the Easter occasion. Including the elegant Azaleas in a bouquet may whisper that you hope the recipient will take good care of themselves for your sake.

Daffodils signify love and respect and by giving a bouquet of them at Easter, you are declaring that the recipient is your one true love. 

Chrysanthemum in an Easter gift indicates your respect for them and its inclusion is a sign of cheerfulness, except for yellow. The popular spring bulb, the Tulip, is a messenger of belief and love. Red Tulips are for I Love You messages. Mixed tulip bouquets make a statement on how beautiful are your eyes! Yellow tulips mean that you are Hopelessly in Love with the recipient and not necessarily an Easter message.

Although Hyacinth is also included for its sweet fragrance, each colour represents something different and not necessarily associated with the Christian festival. 

Please mindful of Easter flowers that may be harmful to your pets. If you have cats, Easter lilies must be kept out of their reach.

Purple Daisies, photo by Marian Munro

White Daisies, photo by Marian Munro

Azaleas, photo by Marian Munro

Easter lilies on postcard from the collection of Marian Munro

Who can spot them first?

Coltsfoot,  is one of our earliest flowers

If your lawn or garden is stony, chances are you’re already acquainted with Coltsfoot. Bright yellow flower-heads appear on warm roadsides and sidewalks as early as March. This year that might be a major botanical feat, but one can hope. Soft scalloped leaves follow later in April.

It is named for the leaves which resemble the footprints of young horses. The plant is also familiar to those old enough to remember Adams cough drops sold in the small foil rolls. They were available in Red Cherry or Black Licorice flavours. Primary ingredient aside from sugar, was an extract of these leaves.

Coltsfoot is still dried for herbal teas to soothe coughs, colds and congestion. Its Latin name,Tussilago farfara comes from tussis, cough. For those who would prefer not to have a lawn of these green felted leaves, increasing the loam and fertility levels will render soil less hospitable to colonies of coltsfoot. 

Coltsfoot, Tussilago farfara, by Ross Hall

Coltsfoot leaves, photo by Sean Blaney

Too Hot to Handle?

Skunk Cabbage is a Warm-blooded Plant!

While already covered in an earlier note on exotic foliage plants that are toxic, Skunk Cabbage also has a secret! And no, it does not contain blood.

Its unattractive and highly smelly flowers erupt in late March when there is still snow on the ground. How CAN they do this?? The phenomenon is called thermogenesis or heat production. They literally melt the snow around them so that growth can start. The plants are not frost-hardy. It is a rare character in plants, but the philodendron also has the ability.

Why would they want to do this? Aside from the ability to warm the soil, heating up allows your fragrance to spread outward, maybe even reaching potential pollinators. Even when you smell like skunks. Some insects are drawn to that um, perfume!

The cost is huge, requiring as much metabolic energy as a small rodent or hummingbird, comments Cynthia Wood, who blogged on warm-blooded plants in 2006. For this reason, the large rosette of leaves of the skunk cabbage do not heat up, just the inflorescence, and only for a short period of time.

Flowers are highly modified, with a purplish hood surrounding the club-shaped spadix or flower-head. The hood, also known as the spathe begins emitting heat and odour once the plant is ready for pollination. Leaves appear in May, their buds exiting the soil as the flower begins to decay.

Nova Scotia may need a whole lot more than skunk cabbage to melt all the snow, but it does illustrate how plants deal with extremes.

Alain Belliveau's snow-melting flowers
More flowers of skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, by Eugene Quigley
Leaves of skunk cabbage, photo by David Mazerolle

March 17: Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to ye!

Joining the Celtic Cross, harp and leprechaun as symbols of St. Patrick’s Day is the shamrock. Legend has it that the shamrock was chosen as Ireland's national emblem by St. Patrick who had used it to illustrate the doctrine of the Christian Trinity. The Trinity is the idea that God is really three-in-one: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

The Irish have considered shamrocks as good-luck symbols since earliest times, and today people of many other nationalities also believe they bring good luck. The Irish Shamrock is actually one of several three-leaved clovers found in Ireland and introduced to Nova Scotia. In addition our wood-sorrel is sometimes called a shamrock. Its leaves certainly resemble those of the clovers, but larger and sometimes folded.


scan of vintage postcard, Marian Munro collection
Trifolium pratense, Red Clover, photo by Sean Blaney
Trifolium campestre, Hop Clover, photo by Martin Thomas
Oxalis montana, Wood-sorrel, photo by David Mazerolle

Catkin flowers

One of my favourite outdoor pastimes as a child growing up in rural Nova Scotia, was scouting out the best pussy willow patches, or even trees.  

Pussy willows are best developed on Salix discolor. The soft furry structures are actually the immature male flowers, clustered in a catkin. Catkins are either pollen donors (male) or pollen receivers (female).  In willows, the two types of catkins are found on different trees or shrubs. The “pussy willows” form very early, before leaves erupt. Popular in flower arrangements, the tips of branches bearing pussies will last for days in a vase with water.

The willows are fairly diverse in Nova Scotia, ranging from dwarf shrubs of the arctic alpine habitats to large shade-providing trees. What they are not, are ‘bushes’. That non-botanical term refers to willows, alders, cherries and other woody plants often seen roadside. Rightfully woody plants with multiple stems are called shrubs. Those with a single stem or trunk are called trees.

Back to catkins. They are produced by alders, willows and birches. Usually cylindrical, they are flower clusters with no corolla and mostly wind-pollinated. Sometimes only the pollen-producing flowers form catkins or aments. The female flowers may be arranged in a cone or single, like beech or oak.

Immature pussy willows, staminate catkins of Salix discolor, photo by Martin Thomas

Staminate alder catkins, photo by Ross Hall

Staminate catkins, poplar, photo by Martin Thomas

Attracting the birds and the bees

Attracting our feathered and other flying visitors is relatively easy with little needed other than a willingness to consider them in our garden planning.

Foremost is the reduction of use of chemical sprays during and following the blooming of flowers. Some areas ban the general home use, but a little knowledge goes a long way to improve compliance. Bees and butterflies depend on unsprayed plants on which to feed. Young fledgling birds need insect larvae on which to feed. Spraying plants removes their food, the butterfly larvae. See the connection?

Butterflies, birds and bees like flower shapes that are open and cuplike or tubular, rather than pompom-like. Some common flowers preferred by our flying visitors are Butterfly bush, Black-eyed Susans, daisies, grasses, coneflowers, Pulmonaria and Penstemon amongst the ornamentals. Yarrow, both wild and cultivated is a hit amongst butterflies in general. If its Monarch butterflies you want to support, then milkweed is a must. There are ornamental forms and even our native Swamp Milkweed will host a few Monarchs. Swallowtail Butterflies are drawn by parsley, dill, fennel and Queen Anne’s lace, all aromatic members of the carrot family. Bees cannot see red so apple and cherries provide spring food them.

Birds are partial to flowering trees or shrubs such as Flowering crab an ornamental and Viburnum (both native and planted species and cultivars). Shadbush or Saskatoonberries are guaranteed to attract cardinals, cedar waxwings and even robins. Hummingbirds like lilacs for nesting or other shrubs, but are drawn to columbine, bee balm and Lobelias, plus most red or crimson flowers. Think baskets of red or scarlet fuschia, sought after by those little Ruby-throats.

Whatever the size of your flower patch, all will appreciate a small patch of bare moist soil amidst the food plants.



Rudbeckia flowers, photo by Marian Munro


Daucus carota, Queen Anne's lace, photo by Marian Munro
Aquilegia or columbine flowers, photo by Sean Blaney

Asclepias, or milkweed flower, photo by Sean Blaney
Smooth Serviceberry, photo by Martin Thomas