We're all craving for Spring

The Untamed Gardener

'Let it be spring

Come bubbling, surging tide of sap!

Come rush of Creation…'

- D H Lawrence - craving for spring

Aisling Blackburn

It doesn’t feel like spring, but yet here it is. The signs are all around us. I feel especially attuned to it this year since I began to listen and watch nature more attentively. What was a bleak winter of dark times, is now followed by a spring, that simply cannot hold back its exuberance. Visible to us as the breaking of buds and the upward light seeking mobility of small plants like lesser celandine, that appear through the still cold soil; and audible by vigorous bird song, all of that must be a tonic for the soul.

Even before Lá Fhéile Bríde, it was foretold by the catkins on the hazel as I drove along the roadways to and from work. They are the male flowers that release ripe pollen, to be carried on the wind towards itself and other hazel trees. Unlike the holly, whose male flowers only appear on male plants, the hazel bears both male and female on the same branch, where the tiny red female flowers sit further above the long tassels, that later bear the hazelnuts.

“…It opens the tiny hands of the hazel with such infinite patience…”,

The impatient poet loves the hazel but shuns the narcissus and hates the snowdrop and the hellebore so much that he wants to trample on them! Come now Mr Lawrence! Who would do such a thing, especially since we have waited so long for a bit of colour. We all love to see the little plants with their nodding heads “yes, yes, yes” they are saying to spring, “we are back again”.

On the other hand, the hellebores in my own garden are not showing any colour against the blistering wind and cold, and the only sign of their existence, is a few leftover leaves framed against a fading winter’s pallet. I look forward to them though; more nodding flowers this time and very retiring, their beautiful faces hid from everyone and everything in a range of whites to deep maroon. Both the Christmas and Lenten rose when content will happily propagate themselves about in a variety of pastel tones and colours. Helleborus niger, and H. orientalis and H x hybridus do not like extremes and are a good woodland edge plant. Like all Ranunculaceae (buttercup family) they are very deep rooting and do not like being moved, and just like my plant, they may sulk and not perform again for many years after transplanting. As a student, I used to tend a winter garden in Charleville in Enniskerry, it was full of H. argutifolius (holly leaved or Corsican hellebore) and some H. foetidus (stinking hellebore), which teamed well with the native lords and ladies -Arum maculatum. As I only worked there in summertime, surrounded by magnificently coloured borders, in my naivety, I mostly dismissed the garden which I did not see at its height, and the ultimate value of these beautiful evergreens with their pale green winter flowers of up to one meter; but I did like their interesting leaves.

The RHS (royal horticultural society), says H. foetidus is to be found in the wild in Ireland but according to Webb’s flora; it is a garden escape and in Francis Rose’s, wild flower key, she says it is very rare. Ireland does host a range of Helleborines found in the wild - very exquisite orchid flowers, the finding of which is coveted by botanists and plant lovers alike. You will find all of the above - plant hunters, botanists and helleborines, (if you are very lucky) in the warmer months, often in unexpected places such as carparks. There are the broad leaved, the narrow-leaved, the dark red and the marsh helleborine. If you don’t have a wildflower book, go on Irishwildflowers.ie for a gander.

Speaking of which, there are usually a few of those about too, especially in winter. Although not a bird watcher myself, I have a few friends who are, so when we went out on Saturday, January 16 for the international swan census, we saw 20 plus whooper swans, and a pair of mute swans on Gortahork lake. With them were two Greylag geese Gé ghlas, commonly found on our green winter fields. Local birdwatchers will be aware of the 50 permanent resident geese, doing the rounds of the lakes in the Templeport area. These are Canada geese - Gé Cheanadach - escapees from Crom Castle. Have wings, will fly….

We who are winter-weary in the winter of the world

Come making the chaffinch nests hollow and cosy

come and soften the willow buds till they are puffed and furred

Then blow over them with gold…

- D H Lawrence.