Right now, my garden is awash in colour.
Pink, red, yellow, white. Everywhere I turn, there is colour in a bloom. With the sun climbing higher each day and Spring beginning to tip ever closer to Summer, I find myself wandering my garden, eyes drawn to certain blooms that hold a deeper meaning and story.
I began to wonder: What do these flowers mean to me?
Not just in folklore or books, but here in my garden?
What secrets do they hold, what words do they whisper?
What sacred messages are hidden in their petals?
Peony
Peony.
The peony is always one of the most anticipated flowers in my garden; and it holds more than just beauty. This year, for the first time, it’s offered me two full flowers. It was gifted to me by my parents, rehomed from my nannas garden, carrying a thread of my lineage.
Traditionally, peonies symbolise prosperity, good fortune, love, abundance and longevity. For me, it also carries ancestral resonance and I smile every time it blooms, thinking of my nanna.
Aquilegia
This one was a pleasant surprise in my garden, and is one of the few plants I haven’t placed with intention! I still remember the joy I felt seeing this plant come up the first spring I had in my home. I have a pink and a purple that come up every year (although my purple hasn’t flowered this year, but I still hope.)
Aquilegia is a flower of good faith, peace and serendipitous fortune. In mythology, it’s said to be a portal between the worlds and is also often associated with love Goddesses in different cultures. In my garden, these blooms are dedicated to Aphrodite.
Honeysuckle
Honeysuckle spirals and climbs my archway in the middle of my garden and its sweetly scented flowers, when in full bloom, is intoxicating. It’s long been associated with love, happiness, and devotion.
This plant is one of promise- each year it comes back and grows just a little taller, blooms just a little bit more.
Dandelion
My unsung hero.
Dandelions are the first to arrive as Spring begins to take ahold of my garden, dotting the grass with little suns of yellow. In the process of rewilding my garden, the dandelions have begun to spread across my grass, and by April, I have a sea of yellow reaching towards the sun and brightening any gloomy day.
And then, just like that, they turn to seed and little moons sway in the wind. They turn joy incarnate as my son spends hours sending faeries and seeds flying into the wind to start their new journey.
Their magic sits in their reminder that magic is often simple.
Bottlebrush
This was another gift for my garden, grown by my dad from a cutting he’d taken of his own. Bottlebrushes represent abundance, laughter and joy and also creativity, as mine is yellow. Its yellow flowers unfurl in sunlight and will take her own, sweet time in doing so. This plant reminds me that creativity is slow and sweet, and a process to be enjoyed.
PS- she’s still waiting to burst open. The very top is just starting to burst.
As I walk my garden at the tipping point of Spring to Summer, I’m listening deeply to the language of the flowers in my garden.
I’m paying attention to the colours, the textures, the way the wind plays and how the soil feels.