Garden Superstitions – The Origins and History of Garden Folklore

In this Blog, I want to share stories, folklore and history of plants, trees and even objects within gardens that have had people on edge or worried for centuries. It is all good fun and meant to be lighthearted education. These are similar to the “see a penny” or “toss salt over your shoulder” Hopefully you will also get new knowledge of a plant you may not have known about previously.

Garden gnomes

Garden gnomes as we know them today, were first produced in 19th century Germany by sculptor Philip Griebel. Made of clay (and eventually resin and plastic by the 1970s and 80s), these gnomes were called Gartenzwerge or garden dwarfs. However, the earliest gnome statuary descendants were used in ancient Rome.

The Renaissance era was the period that gnome folklore and stories were expanded due to the high spirits of the age.

It was during this timeline that the gnomes were described as beings with magical powers. At this time, the folklore of garden gnomes coming out at night to help plants evolved.

They were playfully known as “grotesques” and designed to be petite with hunched backs and earned the title of the Italian word “Gobbi”

By the 18th century, garden gnomes were commonly used as a status symbol in the gardens of wealthy families.

Scarecrows

The Egyptians used the first scarecrows in recorded history to use to protect wheat fields along the Nile River from flocks of quail. Egyptian farmers installed wooden frames in their fields and covered them with nets. Then they hid in the fields, scared the quail into the nets and took them home to eat for dinner.

As early as the 8th century, the Japanese had the Kuebiko to keep sparrows from the rice. This figure was dressed in old dirty rags and bells and would be burned in the field at the end of the agricultural season. The smoke and smell would keep the birds away. In some Native American cultures, men sat on raised platforms and shouted at birds or animals approaching crops.

Fairy rings

A fairy ring, also known as fairy circle, is a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms. They are found mainly in forested areas, but also appear in grasslands or rangelands. Fairy rings are detectable by sporocarps (fungal spore pods) in rings or arcs, as well as by a necrotic zone (dead grass), or a ring of dark green grass. Fungus mycelium is present in the ring or arc underneath. The rings may grow to over 10 meters (33 ft) in diameter, and they become stable over time as the fungus grows and seeks food underground.

Fairy rings are the subject of much folklore and myth worldwide—particularly in Western Europe. They are often seen as hazardous or dangerous places, and linked with witches or the Devil in folklore. Conversely, they can sometimes be linked with good fortune.

Dandelion blowing

Different Dandelion species are native to different regions around the world. However, the most common species (such as Taraxacum officinale) originated from Europe. It spread around the world as early as the 1600s.

The name Dandelion comes from the French dent-de-lion, which is derived from the Latin phrase for lion’s tooth. This is based on the spiky and toothed shape of the leaf.

Taraxacum comes from the Arabic word for bitter herb, tarakhshagog.

Unlike some other flowers in Greek mythology, Dandelions were not given a long backstory involving transformation from a god. However, they still played a vital role in many myths that indicate how widely they were used during the Ancient Greek era.

For example, Theseus ate as many Dandelions as he could for 30 days to prepare for his battle with the Minotaur. This gave him the strength and energy he needed to find his way through the maze.

Some cultures believe that the fluffy seeds that fly away on the wind carry the wish to spirits, fairies, or angels that might fulfill it.

Planting potatoes and Good Friday

In the 1600s, potatoes were just arriving in Europe and Europeans were suspicious of the tuber, believing that it might be evil. To try and safeguard themselves against potential misfortune, they started planting potatoes on Good Friday, but only after sprinkling their gardens with Holy Water.

Foxglove

Folklorists are divided on where the common name for Digitalis purpurea comes from. In some areas of the British Isles it’s believed be a corruption of “folksglove,” associating the flowers with the fairy folk, while in others the plant is also known as “fox fingers,” its blossoms used as gloves by the foxes to keep dew off their paws. Another theory suggests that the name comes from the Anglo-Saxon word foxes-gleow, a “gleow” being a ring of bells. This is connected to Norse legends in which foxes wear the bell-shaped foxglove blossoms around their necks; the ringing of bells was a spell of protection against hunters and hounds.

“Knock on Wood”

The origin of the custom may be in Celtic or Germanic folklore, wherein supernatural beings are thought to live in trees, and can be invoked for protection. One explanation states that the tradition derived from the pagans who thought that trees were the homes of fairies, spirits, dryads and many other mystical creatures. In these instances, people might knock-on or touch wood to request good luck or to distract spirits with evil intentions

Rowan trees

The rowan is also prominent in Norse mythology as the tree from which the first woman was made, (the first man being made from the ash tree). Legend has it that it saved the life of the god Thor by bending over a fast flowing river in the Underworld in which he was being swept away. Thor managed to grab the tree and get back to the shore.

In the British Isles the rowan has a long and still popular history in folklore as a tree which protects against witchcraft and enchantment.

The physical characteristics of the tree may have contributed to its protective reputation. Each berry has a tiny five pointed star or pentagram opposite its stalk. The pentagram is an ancient protective symbol.

People also believed the colour red was the best protection against magic. Thus the rowan’s vibrant display of berries in autumn may have further contributed to its protective abilities. The rowan was denoted as a tree of the Goddess or a Faerie tree by virtue of its white flowers. The same was true of the hawthorn and elder.

These themes of protection crop up again and again. People carried pieces of the tree to ward off witchcraft. They even used of rowan sprigs to protect cows and their produce from enchantment.

Elder trees

Many superstitions and legends are associated with the elder tree and shrub (genus Sambucus ). In some cultures, it is identified with the tree on which Judas hanged himself as well as with the wood used for the Cross. In some parts of Scotland and Wales, it was believed that the dwarf elder grew only on ground that had been soaked in blood. Elder was not used for a child’s cradle because it could cause the child to pine or be harried by fairies. In Germany it was considered unlucky to bring an elder branch into a house, because it might also bring ghosts, or, in England, the Devil himself.

However, elder was also believed to protect against evil, and it was thought that wherever it grew witches were powerless. In England gardens were sometimes protected by having elder trees planted at the entrance, or in hedges around the garden. In some parts of the United States, an elder stick was burned on the fire at Christmas Eve to reveal witches and sorcerers.

Mullein

Also called Hag’s taper, Our Lady’s Flannel and Wild Ice Leaf, Mullein (Verbascum spp) has a long and respected presence in a healer’s kit.

Mullein may have gotten its name from a Celtic term meaning yellow or a Latin word that means soft thanks to the fuzzy-looking yellow blossoms that crown the stalk. It was among the herbs that served as a bridge to New World approaches to healing. Even among illiterate people nearly everyone knew this plant on site simply because it had so many applications.

“Hag’s taper” refers to the superstition that the mullein torch was used by witches and other devil worshipers as a source of light for their incantations and rites. In both Europe and Asia, mullein was thought to be a sort of botanical amulet, capable of driving off evil spirits.

Rue

Rue is bitterit is thought the verb “to rue,” to feel sorry over or wish something had not happened, came from the impressive bitterness of rue leaves. However, the Oxford English Dictionary takes the English name for the plant from ruta, the Roman name for the plant (via Old French) and derives the verb for sorrow and regret from Old German, a totally different origin. Both words go back 1000 years in English and have sounded and looked similar most of that time.

This story, reported originally by M. E. Leather in 1912, suggests others have linked rue the plant to rue the regret: “It is only a few years ago since a young girl went to Cusop [England], to the wedding of a young man who had jilted her ; waiting in the church porch till the bridegroom came out, she threw a handful of rue at him, saying “May you rue this day as long as you live !” The bridegroom “was told that the curse would come true because the rue was taken direct from the plant to the churchyard and thrown “between holy and unholy ground,” that is, between the church and the churchyard.” (Leather p. 115, online) Independent of regret, rue, the plant, has been grown and used since Classical Greece (at least). It has bitter oils in its leaves and was used for a very wide variety of ailments as well as a flavoring.

Tamarind

Native to tropical Africa, the tree grows wild throughout the Sudan and was so long ago introduced into and adopted in India that it has often been reported as indigenous there also, and it was apparently from this Asiatic country that it reached the Persians and the Arabs who called it “tamar hindi”

The Tamarind tree, has many superstitions surrounding it. Locals believe that the neighborhood in which the Tamarind tree grows becomes unwholesome, and that it is unsafe to sleep under it owing to the acid the tree emits during the moisture of the night. Another superstition about the Tamarind is that few plants will survive beneath it and that it is harmful to both people and animals to sleep under it, because of the belief of the corrosive effect that fallen leaves from the tree has in damp weather.

To certain Burmese, the tree represents the dwelling-place of the rain god and some hold the belief that the tree raises the temperature in its immediate vicinity. Hindus may marry a tamarind tree to a mango tree before eating the fruits of the latter. In Nyasaland, tamarind bark soaked with corn is given to domestic fowl in the belief that, if they stray or are stolen, it will cause them to return home. In Malaya, a little tamarind and coconut milk is placed in the mouth of an infant at birth, and the bark and fruit are given to elephants to make them wise.

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