• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Heavy Petal

Gardening for everyone

  • About
  • Journal
  • Small-Space Vegetable Gardens
You are here: Home / Bulbs and Tubers / Happy Valentine’s day

Happy Valentine’s day

February 14, 2007 by Andrea Bellamy 1 Comment

crocus_heart.jpg

Crocuses aren’t usually the flower that immediately springs to mind when I think of Valentine’s Day. But according to the Royal Horticultural Society, Crocus sativus, the saffron crocus, is also known as St. Valentine’s Rose. I looked it up, and found this here:

Crocuses flower around Valentine’s Day. Krokos was the Greek name for the saffron crocus. It was considered to be an aphrodisiac. The legend about its origin is of Zeus and Hera making love so passionately that the heat of their ardor made the bank on which they lay burst open with crocuses.

Steamy! I wonder if that myth was the originator of the bed-of-scattered-rose-petals romantic stereotype commonly seen in Hollywood movies.

Regardless, happy valentine’s day, readers! May we all spread a little love around today. The world could certainly use some.

Photo via Wazka (Flickr).

Related posts:

Default ThumbnailI feel like paella tonight Default ThumbnailHappy Hallowe’en! Default ThumbnailAnd… we’re back Default ThumbnailName this rose! Only $8000

Filed Under: Bulbs and Tubers

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Stuart says

    February 14, 2007 at 7:52 pm

    Andrea, great post. You could be setting a new trend in Valentine’s Day flower giving (or maybe reviving an old one if the name is anything to go by).

    Great illustration.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

My latest book

The bright, illustrated cover of Small-Space Vegetable Gardens
Small-Space Vegetable Gardens by Andrea Bellamy

newsletter

Subscribe to receive occasional email updates (I promise never to spam you!)

Reader Favourites

Round, cookie-dough-like balls of clay and seed

How to make seed balls

Colourful quinoa plants in bloom

Would you grow your own grains?

This proves it. Chickens are hot.

Categories

  • Annuals
  • Blogging
  • Bulbs and Tubers
  • Composting
  • Critters and wildlife
  • Events
  • Garden Design
  • Garden Tours
  • Gardens to Visit
  • Green Gardening & Living
  • Holiday
  • How To
  • Indoors
  • Inspiration
  • Miscellaneous
  • My garden
  • Outdoor Living
  • Pacific Northwest
  • Perennials
  • Ponds & Water Gardening
  • Raving and Whining
  • Resistance is fertile
  • Resources
  • Retail Therapy
  • Shrubs & Trees
  • Small-Space Vegetable Gardens
  • Sugar Snaps and Strawberries
  • Uncategorized
  • Veggies & Edibles
  • WTF?
  • Home
  • About

Copyright © 2023 · Infinity Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in