May Day always evokes special memories for me as all through my school years, we had a spectacular May Day celebration, filled with a unique May Dance around many May poles, colorful May Day dresses and crowns and wreaths of fresh flowers and even a May Day Queen. I cannot let this day slip by without an ode to flowers as the quintessential announcement of Spring. Flowers flood my garden and I always try to have a few stems of blossoms in my house to bring color and life to my space. If you are an occasional flower enthusiast or love flowers as much as I do, here are a few tips about keeping your flowers fresh and some interesting facts about some of our favorite flowers.
If your vase could talk, here are some things it would tell you to keep your fresh flowers looking perky and bright! First of all, you want to make sure that your vase is sparkling clean to avoid any harboring of bacteria. Clean your vase with 10 parts of water to one part of bleach. Rinse thoroughly and your vase will always be ready for a new bouquet. Glass and pottery vases are preferable as metal vases upset the pH of the water. Now, trim the stems at a 45 degree angle to expose the most surface for sucking up water, for flowers subsist on the ability to soak up as much water as possible. When you are ready to plunge the stems in water, strip off any leaves that might be submerged which also accelerates bacterial growth. A package of powdered floral preservative is always advisable over the myths of using aspirins, bleach or lemons. The best thing you can do is change the water daily and snip off an inch of each stem to keep the water flowing up the stems. Doing all of these easy steps will encourage those fragile blooms to last longer as flowers are so ethereal and may last a week but most blooms only last 3 days. If you can, buy local or at a farmer’s market, or bet yet, gather “ye rosebuds” from your own garden.
Here are a few fun facts about some favorite flowers.
Tulips might be the supreme harbinger of spring that created “Tulip mania” in the early 1600’s in Holland when tulips were more valuable than gold. Today, we still prize tulips for their gorgeous colors and variety of shapes and treasure their fragility as tulips grow an inch per day but only last in bloom for 5-7 days.
Dandelions are stigmatized as weeds but are actually very rich in Vitamin A, C, calcium, iron and potassium. The derivation of the word is from French- “dent de lion” which means “lion tooth,” referring to the coarse leaves surrounding the mound of its yellow center.
Roses remain the queen of flowers but did you know that they are related to apples, peaches, plums, pears, and almonds? The rose hips, the berry-like fruit pods that are left after all the petals have bloomed out, are very valuable which are a very rich source of Vitamin C and are used in making jams, jellies and rose hip tea. Rose oil is a premium fragrance that takes over 2,000 flowers to make one ounce of rose oil. Roses are prized for more than their gorgeous blooms.
Sunflowers, those stately giants, are also called “Helianthus” which means: Helia-sun and Anthus-flower, and the head of the yellow blooms actually track the sun during the day, moving its head along the trail of the sun, a true example of “heliotropism.” Sunflowers are made of many florets and the seeds are rich in oil and sunflower seeds are a healthy snack. Sunflowers are easy to grow but need a lot of room and a lot of sun!
Daffodils, with their little cups of butter, are jaunty and sprightly, but have a dark side as they contain an alkaloid poison, lycorine, which is found in the bulb and the leaves. Daffodil’s beauty overrides its danger as daffodils are also cultivated for making galantamine which is used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease-a duo of spring loveliness and curative powers.
If you have ever planted flower seeds or bulbs and tended the sprouting and budding of such wonder from a tiny little packet of energy, fueled by water and sun, you know flowers are a spring of miracles. Bringing blooms into your house can only spread colorful surprises.
