Key moments in the lives of plants do not always tie in to the standard eight festivals. Yes, the snowdrops flower at Imbolc and hawthorn blooms around Beltain and the grain is generally ripe for Lugnasadh, but these are just a few plants. Many other plants come into their own at other times in the year. A real relationship with the plant life of the UK calls for more attention than just festival plants. If you are not in the UK, your seasonal plants will be different and I think it’s really important to engage with what’s around you, not what comes from the history of the festival.
One of my favourite April wildflowers is the Kingcup – they tend to bloom once it starts feeling warm and springish. Large, exuberant yellow flowers, often occurring in great profusion. Kingcups favour damp places, canal edges, riverbanks, ponds and streams.
Another favourite for this time of year is a subtler and more peculiar flower.
The birds nest orchid is unique in the UK – it has no chlorophyll and relies entirely on fungi for nutrients. To my eye, they look a bit undead, and so the household name for them is the zombie orchid. They can get quite tall, but these were all fairly close to the ground.
This is also very much the time of year for violets, and my part of the world offers a profusion of white violets as well as the more regular violet ones. They’re small and close to the ground, so you have to be paying attention to spot them. White violets are especially good for annoying certain kinds of pedants, I have found!