Urban Gardens

Photo by Judy Mallett, Bloomsbury Gardens

While we deck the halls with boughs of holly during the Christmas season, the sanctity of the plant has a pagan origin. Two hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Druids used mistletoe to celebrate the coming of winter. They would gather this evergreen plant (that is parasitic upon other trees) and use it to decorate their homes, believing the plant had special healing powers for everything from female infertility to poison ingestion.

In ancient Northern Europe, Christmas was during the middle of winter, when people believed ghosts and demons could be heard howling in the winter winds. Boughs of holly, believed to have magical powers since they remained green through the harsh winter, were often placed over the doors of homes to drive evil away. Greenery was also brought indoors to freshen the air and brighten the mood during the long, dreary winter. Legend also has it that holly sprang from the footsteps of Christ as he walked the earth. The pointed leaves were said to represent the crown of thorns Christ wore while on the cross and the red berries symbolized the blood he shed.

The above photo of holly spring in crates was taken by my good friend, landscape designer Judy Mallett, whose company Bloomsbury Gardens sent out holiday cards bearing the image. When Judy and I spoke yesterday just as a major snow storm was approaching the east coast, she had just come in from spreading grass seed on her lawn. “It’s a great thing to do just before a snow fall, though my neighbors thought I’d gone off the deep end.” she told me.  In snowy, cold climates, planting winter grass seed is called “dormant winter seeding” because you lay the grass seed either on top of or under the snow until spring, when it begins to grow. Let it snow, let it grow.

For more on Bloomsbury Gardens, contact Judy Mallet at judy@bloomsburygardens.com or 203-698-3485