Sacramento Digs Gardening: May Day all about spring flowers

A sheaf of yellow roses makes a beautiful decoration for May Day. This is The Poet's Wife, a David Austin rose. (Photo:

Kathy Morrison)

Ancient tradition celebrates halfway point to summer

May Day was made for merriment.

Maypoles, May baskets and “bringing in the May” -- all are part of flower-filled May Day traditions that date back to the ancient Celtics.

With our gardens coming into full bloom, this first day in May may be as good a time as any to explore some real old-fashioned garden fun.

May Day represents the midpoint of spring, halfway between the vernal equinox and the first day of summer. For hundreds of years, this holiday has been celebrated in the British Isles as an important point on the agricultural calendar.

This is a garden lover’s kind of holiday: Everything gets decorated with flowers (especially yellow or wildflowers). Houses are adorned with floral wreaths; so are livestock and pets. People wear garlands on their heads and around their necks.

All that decorating takes many May blooms. That’s the origin of the phrase, “bringing in the May”; it means picking a lot of flowers – often by the armload.

May baskets are little gifts left (anonymously) on doorsteps. The basket – often just a colored paper cone or decorated pasteboard box – contains a small bouquet of flowers and something sweet to eat (such as cookies or candy). The giver leaves the treats, rings the doorbell, shouts “May basket!” and runs. If the recipient catches the giver in the act, they get a kiss. (Maybe not this particular May Day, but that’s the tradition.)

In the U.S., maypoles may be the best known May Day tradition. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, the ancient Celtics danced around a living tree strung with ribbons while praying for good crops.

By the Middle Ages, the maypole had become a wooden pole – usually in the center of the village. The taller the pole, the more dancers could wrap ribbons around it. (That’s another tradition that’s probably being skipped this May Day.)

Instead of dancing with ribbons, bring in the May from your garden and celebrate a beautiful spring.

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

gardening Sacramento floral traditions May Day roses gardening history blooms bouquets yellow flowers

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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