Episode 4: Snowdrop
On this month’s episode of Flowers & Folklore Sarah tells you all about the snowdrop.
You can find Flowers & Folklore on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, YouTube and lots of other places.
Transcript
Hello, and welcome to Flowers and Folklore. I'm Sarah, a florist living in Glasgow in the UK. I run a business called Rook Botanics, which I started in 2020. I create flowers for funerals, weddings, I run lots of workshops, and I now host this podcast. I also write a newsletter called The Foibles of a Florist.
Florist.
0:29
You can find a link for it in the show notes. If you love flowers and folklore and odd floral facts, then you are in the right place. A quick note before we get started. I love reading and learning about flowers and the history and tales associated with them. There's so many different regional stories and so much lore,
0:49
so what you may have heard or read may be different to what I talk about in the podcast. You're absolutely welcome to get in touch and let me know what you've heard. I'm always keen to learn more. If you stick around till the end of the show,
1:00
then I'll share the best ways for you to get in touch. On with the show. Welcome to the fourth episode of Flowers and Folklore. I'm really excited about this episode because this was intended to be the first ever episode. We're going to be talking all about The Snowdrop. When I first had the idea for Flowers and Folklore,
1:22
The Snowdrop was the first episode that I started working on. This is back in 2022 and I just put off doing it and so I'm so pleased that all the notes and all the things that I read are finally going to be worth it.
1:35
This flower holds such a special place in so many people's hearts because it is seen as the harbinger of spring. I think everyone gets really excited about seeing the first shoots of snowdrops because it's kind of the sign that winter isn't going to last forever. I really love the winter,
1:52
but sometimes once the festive season is over and all the twinkly lights have been taken down, the nights can feel just so dark and so long. Just as winter starts to feel like it's never-ending, this small, delicate flower starts to make an appearance. Spring is on its way.
2:11
Before we dive into the symbolism and folklore of the snowdrop, I'm going to give you five quick facts about the flower. Number one, the snowdrop isn't native to Britain. Their native range is mainland Europe and they are thought to have been brought over to Britain by Italian monks.
2:28
Number two, they spread via bulb division rather than relying on pollinators to reproduce. Number three, snowdrops don't actually have petals. The white part of the flower, which looks like petals, are actually flower segments known as tepals, which is an anagram of petals. Number four, In modern medicine,
2:48
a naturally occurring substance in the snowdrop has been used to develop a treatment for the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. 5. In February 2022, a single snowdrop bulb, a variety which is known as Golden Tears, sold for £1,850 on eBay. And here's a bonus fact for you.
3:08
I am recording on the 26th of January and it just so happens that the 26th of January is the average snowdrop first flowering date in the UK. This is based on data collected between 2001 to 2020. So if you're listening to this when the podcast comes out, this is the perfect time to start snowdrop spotting.
3:34
There's truly so much symbolism and folklore attached to the snowdrop that I could never fully cover it in just one episode. You can find a list of all the resources that I use for this episode in the show notes. One thing that kept piquing my interest when researching snowdrops was how it was
3:50
frequently seen as a symbol of hope or a token of death, depending on your location or time period. It's such a polarising plant. I would say that nowadays the belief that it brings bad luck seems to be dying out, but there's still plenty of people who will refuse to bring a snowdrop into their home.
4:08
As mentioned in the quick facts, the snowdrop isn't thought to have been native to Britain. We'll discuss in this episode they're often found around monastic sites, which implies they've been put there intentionally. The snowdrop is noticeably never mentioned in the works of Shakespeare, and quite a lot of his work is flower heavy.
4:27
It's thought they were maybe bought over in the 16th century, so there could have been overlap between Shakespeare's life and the introduction of snowdrops. but maybe they didn't make an impression on him, or he just never came into contact with one. Within the Victorian language of flowers, snowdrops represented hope or consolation,
4:46
and I think this makes complete sense. The winter and snowdrops go hand in hand, and I promise I'm not trying to convince everyone to also love the winter, but I think the joy of winter is that so much colour and greenery is stripped back, so it can feel bare and desolate,
5:03
but it also allows little gems to shine through, You can see the shapes of trees when their branches were normally hidden by leaves. You can notice catkin buds as they start to grow back. And it's fun to spot the jewel red rose hips that have been left behind by the birds.
5:19
Winter also makes it easier to spot robins hopping around. and shoots of snowdrops and other bulbs are easy to find. And I think finding these gems in winter just make them feel extra special. It was fun to dive into the etymology of snowdrops. I'm going to share a handful of my favourite names for them. Flower of Hope,
5:37
candle mass bells, milk flower, church flowers, dingle dangle, fair maid of February, snow piercers, February fair maids. The botanical name for the snowdrop family is Galanthus, and the name for the common snowdrop is Galanthus nivalis. Galanthus derives from the Greek words flower, which is anthus, and milk, which is gala.
6:03
So it makes sense that one of its common names is milk flower. In 1633, in the book The Herbal by botanist John Gerard, there is a reference to a flower called snowdrops. This seems to be the first recorded use of the name snowdrop.
6:20
There does seem to be some debate around the first use of the common name snowdrop. I think Dingle Dangle might be one of my favourite names for a snowdrop, and not just because it sounds a bit rude. It's actually a reference to the way pearls dangle from people's ears,
6:36
which is similar to how the head of the snowdrop dangles from the stem. We're going to start off with the Christian origins of snowdrops. There's a popular story about Adam and Eve once they've left the Garden of Eden. They're feeling hopeless and dejected. An angel descends from heaven and tells them that they're no longer welcome in the
6:56
Garden of Eden. The angel takes pity on them. He takes a snowflake and breathes life into it, transforming the flake into the first snowdrop. He gives them to Adam and Eve and tells them to take these flowers as a sign of hope. The snowdrop ended the spell of winter, and showed divine mercy. Like I mentioned earlier,
7:15
snowdrops are also known as Candlemas Bells as they are very heavily associated with the Christian festival of Candlemas. Candlemas occurs on the 2nd of February. It's alternatively known as the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin. In accordance with Mosaic law, women would need to be ritually purified after giving birth.
7:36
They were seen as unclean and the ritual would allow them to rejoin their community. Candlemas commemorates Mary's purification, as well as the presentation of Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem. Often all of the church's candles would be blessed for the year, and the church and altar would be decorated with snowdrops. Snowdrops were also associated with Imbolc.
7:58
This is a Celtic festival that was celebrated in Scotland Island in the Isle of Man. By the time Imbolc came around, winter stores of food would be getting very low, and so people would take part in rituals to ensure that there would be food to last until the harvest. Fire is particularly important to Imbolc.
8:17
The lighting of fires was believed to increase the power of the sun over the next six months. Brigid is a Celtic goddess associated with the festival of Imborg. Brigid is associated with poetry, healing, protection, cattle and fire. She was later Christianised and became St Brigid, and her feast day is on the 1st of February.
8:41
There's a type of snowdrop called Galanthus in bulk. And according to the book Snowdrop by Gail Harland, the cultivar Galanthus in bulk was distributed from the gardens of Primrose Warborg. Warborg held annual snowdrop lunches for fellow Galanthophiles at Imbolc. And now would be the perfect time to tell you that there is in fact a word for
9:05
people who are obsessed with snowdrops, and that is galanthophile. In March 2012, was added to the English Oxford Dictionary. In Thomas Miller's book, Common Wayside Flowers, which was published in 1860, there's a story about hope and snowdrops. He wrote, There is an old world legend which tells us how the snowdrop became the emblem of hope, that hope,
9:32
with her long golden hair dishevelled, stood one day leaning upon her anchor, watching the snowfall as she looked down upon the earth. that spring stood beside her and hope said the earth would look much more cheerful if instead of snow which melted and left the woods and fields dark and damp the
9:51
flakes were changed into white flowers when the snow had melted that spring smiled as she listened to hope and sending her sweet warm breath among the falling snow it fell in the form of flowers and so the snowdrop was first made that hope caught the first flower before it fell
10:10
and said it should be her emblem throughout all time. I think it's a beautiful legend and very reminiscent of the story of the angel and Adam and Eve. And there's a lot of other examples in literature and culture where snowdrops symbolise hope. For example, in Lewis Morris's poem, The Epic of Hades, written in 1885.
10:31
The narrator of the poem sees a single snowdrop and for him it is the promise of spring and the promise of hope. Fiona Stafford describes the sprouting of snowdrops in her book The Brief Life of Flowers. They seem to have come from nowhere. The little clutch of pale shapes,
10:49
half hidden beneath the tangle of tired brown stems and flat, damp last year's leaves. A white so bright that porcelain would seem dull by their side. And I think that's so true that they do just seem to come from absolutely nowhere. The Snowdrop is particularly poignant in Scotland. And as I'm based in Glasgow,
11:10
I would like to share about the Snowdrop campaign, and it took on a whole new meaning after the Dunblane massacre. I was really unsure about whether to include the Snowdrop campaign in this episode, because it is really heavy, but I like to think of folklore as something that is very much alive and changing with the times.
11:28
And I think it would be a disservice to not mention how meaningful the Snowdrop is within Scotland. The Snowdrop campaign and Snowdrop petition called for a ban on handguns in Scotland. This was created in response to the Dunblane massacre. This tragic incident happened on 13th of March 1996 at a primary school.
11:48
One teacher and 16 pupils were murdered, 15 others were injured. The campaign took its name from the Snowdrop. which was the only flower currently in bloom. The petition received more than 750,000 signatures, and as a result, the Firearms Amendment Act of 1977 was introduced. This effectively banned the possession of all handguns above a .22 calibre.
12:12
There's a snowdrop that has been named after one of the victims in the massacre. Galanthus Sophie North originated from the garden of Dr Evelyn Stephens. Dr Evelyn Stephens was a snowdrop enthusiast and a gardener. Dr Evelyn Stephens chose to name this cultivar after Sophie North. During the Victorian period,
12:36
snowdrops used to be a very common image to find on Christmas and New Year cards. They also used to feature on Valentine's cards. Not as common as other flowers like roses and forget-me-nots, but occasionally you'd find snowdrops. I would just like to take a moment to say that I think snowdrops are the perfect gift for Valentine's.
13:00
I used to work in a flower shop from the ages of 14 to about 21, and every Valentine's it was just a sea of red roses. And I know for a lot of people they signify love, but now I've become more aware of the seasonality of flowers. It feels very,
13:17
very jarring to have red roses at Valentine's when they are completely out of season. And so if you're thinking of a really thoughtful gift, why not get some snowdrop bulbs? And before we move on from Valentine's, I want to tell you about this tradition in Denmark.
13:35
I looked up how to pronounce the tradition and I got very, very conflicting answers. And so I'm going to give it my best, but it was something along the lines of Geigerbru. And I saw several different translations. Google claims... It's freak letter, is a literal translation. But I also saw snowdrop letter and misleading letter.
14:00
And the tradition is to create a letter on a piece of paper that has been cut up so it makes like a lacy pattern. And you're not to reveal who it's from. And if the recipient manages to guess by Easter day who the recipient is, then they get given an Easter egg to give the recipient a clue.
14:19
Instead of a name, there would be dots and the dots would translate to how many letters was in that person's name. And inside the letter, there would be a pressed snowdrop. I feel like everyone loves a snowdrop. And so whilst I was researching this episode,
14:37
I found it really interesting in Gail Harland's book that she notes that not everyone was a fan. Elizabeth Barnett Browning wrote to Robert Browning in february 1804 and said to me unhappily the snowdrop is much the same as the snow it feels as cold underfoot and honestly it really tickled me so i felt that i had
15:00
to include it despite snowdrops often being associated with hope there was this flip side of where they were occasionally seen as bad luck. I saw several references to people believing that if they saw a single snowdrop flowering, it was seen as a sign of impending death.
15:17
But now there's evidence to suggest that snowdrops were brought over to the British Isles and planted by Italian monks, so it'd be common to have snowdrops in monastery gardens and around churches. The Victorians also planted snowdrops on graves, so it's easy to see why there was this association with death.
15:35
In Discovering the Folklore of Plants by Margaret Baker, she said, The poultry yard was sensitive to snowdrops. If snowdrops were brought inside the house while hens were sitting, then the eggs would not hatch. If a girl was hoping to marry, it was wise to not bring snowdrops into the house before St. Valentine's.
15:54
She also wrote that Sussex dairy farmers maintained that picking snowdrops meant milk would be thin and butter would be colourless. I recently picked up a really delightful book by an Edinburgh-based storyteller, Donald Smith. His book, called Folktales from the Garden, is a collection of tales that follows the seasons throughout the year.
16:17
The first story is a modern tale about a king, a bitter queen, and their two daughters. One daughter is kind and considerate, and the other is self-absorbed and spoiled. Snowdrops feature heavily in the tale, and if you're enjoying this podcast, then I think this might be a book that you're interested in.
16:34
And this wouldn't be an episode of Flowers and Folklore if I didn't find a way to bring in Cicely Mary Barker. Of course, there's a flower fairy for the snowdrop. The drawing is really beautiful and it really stands out to me because the fairy is actually towering over the snowdrop,
16:51
which I think just goes to show how dainty these little flowers are. And the song that accompanies the drawing goes as follows. deep sleeps the winter cold wet and grey surely all the world is dead spring is far away wait the world shall waken it is not dead for lo the fair maids of february
17:13
stand in the snow i think it's really lovely that cmb uses one of the common names for snowdrops which is Fair Maids of February. That's the end of the episode on Snowdrops. You are now well on your way to becoming a good length file.
17:28
For a list of the sources that I used for this episode, please head over to my Substack. There's a link in the show notes. Substack allows you to leave comments on each episode as well. So if you have any thoughts or feedback, please let me know.
17:43
Unless you've only got horrible things to say, then, you know, you can just scroll past. It would be really great if you could share this episode with a friend, subscribe to the show or leave me a five star review. Alternatively, you can do none of those things and that's totally fine. I'm just so pleased that you're here.
18:04
Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next month.
