Garlands, Conkers and Mother-Die

British and Irish Plant-lore

Roy Vickery

• Publisher: Continuum
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781441128553
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia sociale

Plants have had symbolic as well as practical meanings and uses since the beginning of human civilisation. This vivid account introduces readers to a rich variety of British and Irish plant folklore, drawing on Roy Vickery's own unsurpassed archives collated over forty years, and a wide range of historical and contemporary literature. Unlike other books which re-use material collected in the Victorian era, this book is based on new material collected by the author, and shows that while some of the wilder superstitions have faded we still cling to the symbolic importance of plants. Putting conkers in wardrobes keeps moths away, and parsley - the Devil's plant - only germinates if sown on Good Friday. A potato in the bed helps do away with cramp and in Cornwall crawling under a bramble bush was considered a cure for blackheads. From plants that foretold births and deaths, to herbal remedies, planting and harvesting rituals, friendship bushes and festive garlands this is a book of rich and living social history and folklore.

1

A TIME FOR EVERY PURPOSE

Farmers and gardeners who started working the land before World War II inherited a wealth of local knowledge which provided guidance on what crops should be planted and when they should be harvested.

However, before anything was sown or planted, plants already growing wild on the site might be examined to indicate the fertility, or otherwise, of the soil.

In Shetland, arvi (common chickweed) was believed to grow wherever the soil was fertile, whereas a profusion of meldi (corn spurrey) was considered to indicate that the soil was infertile and manure was required.¹ Similarly, on the sandy soils of the Surrey/Sussex/Hampshire border, corn spurrey was known as hunger-weed, and its appearance in a garden implied that manuring was required.² In Ireland thistles were believed to indicate fertile soils:

A blind man went to buy a farm. ‘Tie that horse to a thistle,’ he said to his son. ‘I don’t see any thistles,’ said the son. ‘Oh,’ said the old man, ‘we’ll go home son, I won’t buy this land, it’s too poor and bad.’³

In Lincolnshire it was said that there was a sixpence at the bottom of the root of a thistle.⁴ Presumably this referred to the idea that thistles indicated good soil, or it might imply that each thistle plant removed a sixpence worth of goodness from the land.

Heather indicated poor soil. In Cumbria it was said, ‘Where there’s bracken there’s gold, where there’s gorse there’s silver, where there’s heather there’s poverty.’⁵ While in County Kerry it was recorded: ‘Gold under furze, silver under rushes and famine under heath’.⁶

Sometimes the flowering or leaf production of one plant indicated the time for the sowing of another. Spring was said to have arrived when one could place one’s foot on a number of daisies:

‘It ain’t spring’ said an old cottager to me, ‘until you can plant your foot upon twelve daisies.’⁷

In Cambridgeshire, spring had arrived ‘when you could put your foot on seven, or, in some places nine daisies – the number could vary even between neighbours’.⁸

Herefordshire farmers would sow their spring barley when whitlow grass – an inconspicuous white-flowered herbaceous plant – flowered.⁹

The flowering of blackthorn was widely believed to coincide with a spell of cold weather, known as the ‘blackthorn winter’.¹⁰ However, this time was frequently held to be ideal for sowing barley. In Wiltshire it was said: ‘When the blackthorn is white, sow barley both day and night’.¹¹ Alternatively, when soil felt ‘warm to one’s bare bottom’ it was sufficiently warm to sow barley.¹²

The production of elm leaves could also provide guidance. In Warwickshire:

When the elmen leaf is as big as a mouse’s ear,

Then to sow barley never fear;

When the elmen leaf is as big as an ox’s eye,

Then says I, ‘Hie, boys, Hie!’

When the elm leaves are as big as a shilling,

Plant kidney beans, if to plant ’em you’re willing;

When elm leaves are as big as a penny,

You must plant kidney beans if you want any.¹³

Also in Warwickshire: ‘do not plant your kidney beans until elm leaves are as big as sixpences, or they will be killed by frosts’.¹⁴

Similarly, in Guernsey:

Quánd tu veit la fieille d l’orme,

Prends ta pouque et seme ton orge.

When you see the elm in leaf,

Take your seed-bag and sow your barley.¹⁵

In Huntingdonshire it was thought that ‘on Valentine’s Day, beans should be in clay’.¹⁶ Presumably the beans referred to are broad beans, which are cultivated on a field-scale for horse-food, rather than runner, or kidney, beans which are grown in domestic gardens. People in West Yorkshire were advised not to plant kidney beans until hawthorn buds had opened.¹⁷

Fishermen also watched such things. In Herefordshire:

When the bud of the aul [alder] is as big as a trout’s eye

Then that fish is in season in the River Wye.¹⁸

Guernsey fishermen set to sea for mackerel when foxgloves bloomed.¹⁹

In the western counties of England it was believed that frosts cease when mulberry trees burst into leaf.²⁰ However, Devon gardeners were advised to keep tender plants indoors until St Frankin’s Days were past. According to a legend recorded in 1894, the Devil made a pact with a local brewer, named Frankan. The Devil would ensure frosts on three nights from around 19 to 21 May to damage apple blossom and hence diminish the apple crop and limit production of Devonshire cider for as long as the brewer adulterated his beer. Thus when frosts occurred at this time it was a sign that brewers continued to fulfil their side of the contract.²¹

Farmers needed good dry spells for their hay and corn harvests. The opening of oak and ash buds was supposed to indicate what sort of summer might be expected. It was generally believed that if ash trees produce their leaves before oak trees, the summer will be wet. In County Antrim:

If the oak before the ash,

Then we’ll only have a splash.

If the ash before the oak,

Then we’ll surely have a soak.²²

In Somerset:

Oak before ash – splash;

Ash before oak – soak.²³

Christian festivals and local revels, many of which had forgotten associations with local saints’ days, could provide guidance for the planting. In theory, but apparently rarely in practice, shallots were planted on the shortest day (21 December) and harvested on the longest (21 June).²⁴

The weather at Easter might provide an indication of the success or failure of some crops. In the Ilmington district of Warwickshire it was said:

Wet on Good Friday and Easter Day

Much good grass but little good hay.²⁵

Similarly, in Herefordshire:

Rain on Good Friday, or Easter Day

A good crop of hops, but a bad one of hay.²⁶

In Derbyshire²⁷ and elsewhere it was believed that if the sun shone through the branches of apple trees on Christmas Day, an abundant crop was foretold. According to a north Dorset couplet:

If wold Christmas Day be fair and bright

Ye’d have apples to your heart’s delight.²⁸

Guernsey farmers believed that they should start digging the ground for their parsnip crop while they were still eating bread baked at Christmas.²⁹ This preparation of ground appears to have been accompanied by a form of communal celebration. Bob Copper has described similar celebrations in Sussex, where Tater Beer Night, an evening of drink and song, followed the Saturday afternoon on which farm labourers planted their potatoes.³⁰ At Shottery in Warwickshire, bean setting was traditionally started on St Valentine’s Day (14 February) and should be completed before 21 March. On the completion of the work, farmers would provide a meal of butchers’ meat and plum pudding. Elsewhere in the same county, cheese and cider were provided.³¹

In north Devon it was tho...