January 5, 2021 How to Make a White Berry Wreath, the Glastonbury Thorn, Robert More, Henry Arthur Bright, Hyacinth Vases, A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year by Jane Hunter, and How to Wassail Apple Trees
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How to Make a White Berry Wreath | Better Homes & Gardens | BH&G Crafts Editors
Botanical History On This Day
1786 A winter-blooming hawthorn, the Glastonbury Thorn (Crataegus monogyna ‘Biflora’), opened its blossoms not on Christmas, but on January 5—after Britain’s calendar change. This legendary tree blooms at both Christmas and Easter, is linked to Joseph of Arimathea, and still sends a branch to the Queen each year. Despite vandalism in 2010, Kew’s arborists ensured its survival.
1780 Death of Robert More, English politician, gardener, and amateur botanist. Philip Miller named the iris-like genus Morea in his honor, though Linnaeus later respelled it Moraea for his wife. These tender, corm-grown beauties are kin to crocus and gladiolus—delicate, elegant, and best in sunny, well-drained soil.
1874 Henry Arthur Bright, English author of Year in a Lancashire Garden, lamented winter’s bleakness: “A ‘winter garden’ is generally nothing more than a garden of small evergreens… not singularly interesting.” His melancholy note reminds us of how far garden design has come in embracing the beauty of winter.
Unearthed Words
Today's excerpt is from Mandy Kirkby, author of A Victorian Flower Dictionary, who describes hyacinth vases—slender, colored glass bottles with bulbous bases, designed for forcing bulbs in water.
The Victorian innovation?
A clever wire support to hold up heavy hyacinth blooms—neat, tidy, and fragrant on a January sill.
Grow That Garden Library™
Read my review of A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year by Jane Hunter (2018)—496 pages of seasonal poems by Wordsworth, Keats, Frost, Rossetti, and more. A companion for gardeners and nature lovers alike, it turns each day into a meditation on the changing world outside your window.
Buy on Amazon: A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year
Today's Botanic Spark
January 5 Wassailing Night—the 12th after Christmas—when cider-soaked rituals wake apple orchards for a fruitful year. Revelers toast the trees, crown a King and Queen, hang cider-dipped bread for robins, and shout blessings. Then, with clattering pans and cheers, they banish spirits.
As Ben Franklin quipped,
“It is bad to eat apples.
It is better to turn them all into cider.”
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