Luscious Lilies
As the heat of summer grows, and the spring blooms of lupin and iris are now only a memory, the air fills with the heady scent of lilies. Their spiced fragrance is carried on the hot summer air to announce their presence long before you see their beautiful heads swaying high above the other flowers. It’s one of the things I look forward to most in the summer garden.
Lilies are one of the oldest cultivated flowers and are mentioned in Egyptian texts around 2500 BC. In Greek mythology, their creation was attributed to Hera, wife of Zeus. As myth has it, Zeus had a child, Hercules, with a mortal woman. He wanted the child to have the immortality of the Gods which would come with drinking the milk of Hera. He designed to have Hera drugged, and then put the child to her breast to drink. When Hera woke up and realised the deception, she pushed the child from her breast, and in doing so, milk was spilled across the firmament creating the Milky Way. Precious drops also fell to Earth, and where they fell, lilies bloomed. The Roman goddess of love, Venus, was said to be so jealous and resentful of the lily’s pure white beauty, that she had a huge yellow pistil placed in it’s centre resembling a donkey’s, um…… well you know, to spoil it. Honestly, talk about bad behaviour!
In Ancient Greece, brides were crowned with lilies as a blessing for many children, and the Romans used their fragrant blooms to stuff cushions. They have come to symbolise purity, humility, chastity and femininity. The Christian tradition associated them with Paganism until well into the Middle Ages, at which point they adopted them as a symbol of purity, innocence and virtue. The Archangel Gabriel, is often depicted holding a white lily when he appears to Mary to announce the birth of Jesus. When Mary touched the scentless bloom, the flower exuded it’s intoxicating perfume.
Well, they certainly have had an eventful past, and whilst I’m not sure about all of that, I know that I love them. I love everything about them. Well almost everything. I’m not fond of the….. let’s call it “donkey dust” that stains your clothes, but we can blame Venus for that. So let’s take a look around the perennial border at some of my favourites in the garden.
