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Miscellaneous => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: Cali on May 01, 2012, 03:53:05 PM

Title: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Cali on May 01, 2012, 03:53:05 PM
In Greece we make a wreath of the day's pick (garden and wild) and hang it outside our front door.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: pamela on May 01, 2012, 05:48:15 PM
How beautiful Cali....it reminds me of an English summer garden posy!
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: JTh on May 01, 2012, 06:56:48 PM
Really nice, I'm impressed.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Alisdair on May 01, 2012, 06:58:14 PM
Absolutely lovely, and almost certainly the most botanically interesting wreath anyone will have been lucky enough to see today!
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Hilary on May 01, 2012, 07:10:17 PM
Ours was mostly yellow
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: MikeHardman on May 02, 2012, 07:01:03 AM
Lovely!
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Cali on May 02, 2012, 07:16:17 AM
About what you say, Alisdair, I had planned to post a complete list of all the flowers, but after nearly six hours spent picking, making small bouquets, and fixing them all onto a ring made of ivy, I was too tired of flowers and went for a swim in the sea instead.  Maybe I can make one in retrospect.... some of the smaller wildflowers are unrecogniseable after an unseaosanbly warm 24 hours, bun I can use an enlarged photo as an aide memoire....
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Fleur Pavlidis on May 02, 2012, 12:55:09 PM
Go to http://www.mediterraneangardensociety.org/news-bouquet.html to see a bouquet and list of flowers blooming in her garden in New Year's Day several years ago.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: MikeHardman on May 02, 2012, 08:38:02 PM
Fleur - thanks for that pointer to some more of your artistry, Cali.

There's something about your compositions, perhaps also the use of the old pink and white roses, that gives your works of art a feeling of classicism, of the period of Redoute. It is strange, but I seem to have some eclectic image in my mind which I know I'll never find in reality, so I can't find a perfect example to show here. This is vaguely correct in some way http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRvxVUwC5-gHNHw0fFLqEdWLYProiTRmD12qlZ4hrUsqNyzi3oBgg and http://janeaustensworld.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/pierre-joseph-redoute.jpg?w=500
Though I cannot express it well, I find your arrangements calming and emotive. I appreciate the time and skill they embody.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Alisdair on May 03, 2012, 07:49:21 AM
Perhaps more Fantin-Latour than Redouté? And all the better for that! In earlier centuries garlands like Cali's were often painted to surround religious images - one of the most interesting is a Madonna and Child by Rubens, which he shows as if it's a painting apparently hung outside a house with a May Day or other celebratory wreath (painted in turn by Jan Brueghel the Elder) draped around it; now in the Munich Alte Pinakothek.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Cali on May 03, 2012, 10:52:10 AM
Why, thank you Mike and Alisdair. I'm proud that my wreath provided the occasion for a discussion of art and aesthetics on the  MGS Forum. It's an area where I feel more at home, since I'm such a dunce in botanical matters. I have been scolded in the past by more serious fellow gardeners for cutting so many flowers and removing them from their natural habitat.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Casalima on May 03, 2012, 01:48:15 PM
In (north) Portugal there are some wreathes, but the classic May Day colour is a bit of broom - fixed to your front door or your car radiator!
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: JTh on May 03, 2012, 02:19:45 PM
Different countries, different traditions. In Norway you either put on your Sunday clothing and go downtown to participate in or to watch the political demonstrations, or you put on your working clothing and wash your car in front of the house to demonstrate that you are not taking part in the celebrations. I prefer the Greek traditions!
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Hilary on May 01, 2017, 03:29:38 PM
This year's May Wreath.
We had intended to add thistles to give it more colour but blood was drawn so we gave up that idea.

Did anyone else make a wreath?
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: JTh on May 01, 2017, 07:31:23 PM
Yea, Hilary, I made one this morning. It has been dry here and the flowers stems are short, so I had to make the base with laurel branches

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4177/34257351321_9c67514ca6.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/UccT3i)
P4306211.jpg Πρωτομαγιά (https://flic.kr/p/UccT3i) by Jorun Tharaldsen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/46063510@N03/), on Flickr
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Fleur Pavlidis on May 02, 2017, 10:04:51 AM
Well done ladies! I enjoyed picking a bunch of flowers from the garden, but took them as a gift to our hostess for lunch rather making a wreath. My efforts over the last few years have been undistinguished anyway.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Hilary on May 02, 2017, 03:19:31 PM
Lovely assortment of flowers
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Charithea on May 14, 2017, 08:31:47 AM
Hello.  We have been away in Sardinia so  I was not around to make my traditional May wreath. On our return there was a wreath on the door.  My sister made it but did not know how to post a photograph on the Forum. It is great that you have both kept up the tradition. Both lovely wreaths.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Hilary on May 01, 2018, 07:40:27 PM
May Wreath 2018
Since all the Crown Daisies have dried up round here we went up hill and inland to Zemeno, a village above Xylokastro at 560m to make the wreath. I don't know if this area is classed as Orini Korinthia but the roads were narrow , windy and old.
Passing through the village we came to a wider area where we thought to turn around but after getting out of the car we found plenty of wild flowers to make the wreath, Broom, Poppies,Rock Roses and a very useful bush with white flowers.  Could the bush be Traveller's Joy? It certainly gave me joy as the branches provided the base for the wreath. Further along the road there was a lot of Red Valerian which added colour.   
Unfortunately for the wreath it had to stay in the hot car while we ate at a taverna and consequently it became rather droopy and straggly
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Charithea on May 02, 2018, 04:40:50 AM
Good morning Hillary. I believe your white flowers are Styrax officianalis. We have two young trees in the garden.  They have amazing perfum.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Hilary on May 02, 2018, 05:11:31 AM
Great, fantastic, many thanks for the identification.
There was only one bush at the place where we made the wreath, I was relieved to find many more further along the road
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: John J on May 02, 2018, 07:04:50 AM
This year's May wreath, albeit a day late, taken from 2 angles. There are around 35 different plants involved.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Hilary on May 02, 2018, 07:10:33 AM
Beautiful
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Alisdair on May 02, 2018, 07:57:57 AM
Gorgeous wreaths, thank you! A week or so ago while we were on the MGS trip to Uzbekistan, and having our picnic lunch, Suzan Harada from Hawaii who was with us made this wild flower wreath and left it on this hawthorn - I wonder if it survived till May Day. Incidentally for the last few days the MGS facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/mediterraneangardensociety) has had pictures from the trip, which was fantastic, as its daily cover photo.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: David Dickinson on May 02, 2018, 09:19:56 AM
Just to add my compliments too for beautiful wreaths. I think if we started the tradition in Rome it would be more like Remembrance Day as the fields are full of red poppies at this time of year!
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: JTh on May 02, 2018, 10:16:05 AM
So many nice wreaths, ours is more or less like last year's, it is just from flowers picked under our olive trees. This year I used some thin branches from the pomegranate tree as a base; the double-flowered one has no spines.

(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/972/27975961438_a74c272978_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/JC97EJ)
IMG_20180501_121215-2.jpg Πρωτομαγιά (https://flic.kr/p/JC97EJ) by Jorun Tharaldsen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/46063510@N03/), on Flickr[url=
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: John J on May 01, 2020, 08:49:29 AM
May day again and time for the annual wreath. The first photo shows the constituents ready for assembly, the second is the finished product waiting to be hung up.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Hilary on May 01, 2020, 08:59:19 AM
beautiful
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Hilary on May 01, 2020, 09:27:13 AM
Our Maywreath as floppy and blowsy as ever. All the flowers were picked near the beach side walk and in the case of the small mauve flowers on the beach. If you look carefully there is even some seaweed included
Wishing you all a happy 1st May
ΚΑΛΟ ΜΗΝΑ
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Charithea on May 01, 2020, 04:10:03 PM
Proof that I am not 'yellow' colour prejudiced I have included our yellow roses. Mind you they were supposed to be a different colour when we bought the bush but I was told by the lady,  who sold it to me, that the labels got mixed up in the container on their way to Cyprus. I have now got to love their colour in the early morning before the sun fades them. Hilary your May wreath is 'natural' and also bright.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Hilary on May 01, 2021, 04:56:43 PM
May 1st  2021
We are allowed to go in the car somewhere near for exercise now so we went where we knew there would be a wealth of wild flowers .
However, the area had been destroyed last year  which we had forgotten about
My husband went looking for the Yellow Horned Poppy while I picked the Sea Lavender
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Charithea on May 01, 2021, 07:41:24 PM
Hilary when I was a child the base of the wreath was made of Punica granatumfollowed byPassiflora edulis as most gardens had them. We used wild flowers such as mallow flowers and crown daisies and two other cultivated flowers found in the garden such as dianthus and Rosa damascene depending how hot our previous two months were.  Almost every house door had a May wreath then. It seems now only the oldies carry on this tradition despite the ease of acquiring flowers from the florist .
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Hilary on May 01, 2021, 09:53:51 PM
I will take a be-masked walk around the block of flats tomorrow to see if anyone else has made a wreath
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: JTh on May 01, 2021, 10:53:20 PM
Two years since my last May wreath in Greece now, I so much wish I could have been there. I tried to find something I could use as material for a wreath here, but it is too early.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: John J on May 02, 2021, 08:29:18 AM
Jorun, how are things were you are? The situation in Norway doesn't seem to feature much on the World News over here.
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: John J on May 02, 2021, 08:34:48 AM
Following on from the May wreath we have a floral display featuring some of the Salvias that are in flower, as well as others.
On the subject of May wreaths and the fact that only the 'oldies' carry on the tradition, according to Thea's niece several of her friends hang them from their doors. They buy them ready-made from the florist. Is this an example of progress!?
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: JTh on May 02, 2021, 09:57:38 AM
John, everything is very quiet, we have had a near complete lockdown for six months, the covid-19 infection is under control, very few are hospitalized, the total number of deaths 756, but the authorities are afraid of a new increase of the panddemic, like we had last autumn. So far, we are mot allowed to travel abroad; 10 days in a quarantine hotel, which you have to pay for when you return is not very tempting, even if you are vaccinated. The vaccination program has been going very slowly, but suddenly, a few days ago, were told that most of the adult population would have had at least one shot before summer.  So we don't see anybody, we don't go anywhere, I wonder what I would have been without the garden.  Here a couple og greetings from the north:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51151515377_e8aa20948d_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kW5TqV)
_5019111.jpg Sanguinaria canadensis 'Multiplex'" (https://flic.kr/p/2kW5TqV) by Jorun Tharaldsen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/46063510@N03/), on Flickr

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51153149204_c67f87601d_c.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kWeg7m)
_5019105.jpg Paeonia mascula (https://flic.kr/p/2kWeg7m) by Jorun Tharaldsen (https://www.flickr.com/photos/46063510@N03/), on Flickr
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Umbrian on May 03, 2021, 11:35:09 AM
Good to hear from you Jorun but sorry you are so restricted in what you can do. Much the same here in Italy until a week ago when most of the country was opened up slightly. Vaccination programme very slow. Colin, as an over eighty year old, has had his but I am still waiting and am wondering if I shall have to reach that age before being called🙄
As with you my garden has been a great source of pleasure and comfort - best interest one can have😊
Title: Re: 1st of May flowers
Post by: Hilary on May 01, 2023, 02:26:50 PM
Our My Wreath
May1st 2023,
No shortage of crown daisies and thistles
It is the first time I have experienced drizzle on May 1st in 50 odd years