With the recent devastating news of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, she is at the forefront of everyone’s minds and our thoughts and prayers are with The Royal Family. As a ruler, she truly was grace and class defined and will forever be remembered.
With loss, comes remembrance and flowers are such a beautiful and elegant way of remembering an individual. Over her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II was photographed with thousands of flowers. But there was always only one that could be her favourite. A beautiful white bell-shaped flower with a gorgeous sweet aroma, fittingly named Lily Of The Valley.
The first key sighting of Her Majesty with the flower was back in 1953 in her coronation bouquet. The Lily Of The Valley was confirmed as the Queen’s favourite flower as part of the #mychelseagarden campaign back in 2019. Theroyalfamily on Instagram wrote “The Queen has chosen Lily Of The Valley” “Lily Of The Valley featured in Her Majesty’s coronation bouquet and has held special association since”.
What Is The Lily Of The Valley?
Lily Of The Valley is a stunning woodland flowering plant that blooms bell-shaped white flowers in the spring months and has a unique, sweetly scented aroma. The plant is native throughout the cooler Northern Hemisphere, Asia and Europe.
The lily of the valley is an extremely special flower, in cool climates, the plant can live for decades. However, warmer conditions have the opposite effect and can be very harmful to the plant.
While beautiful and elegant, the Lily Of The Valley is also poisonous. However, not to touch, only if ingested. The plant contains over 30 cardiac glycosides, which can inhibit the pumping activity of the heart. Therefore can be extremely harmful when ingested by humans or animals. These poisonous toxins act as a defence mechanism as the poisonous properties help to prevent animals from feeding on the plant seeds and damaging the plant.
Lily Of The Valley Importance
The spring flower, also known as Convallaria Majalisis, is said to bring luck in love. Her Majesty was very lucky in love, sharing a 70-year marriage to The Duke Of Edinburgh, Prince Phillip. The flower is also featured in the wedding bouquets of many royals, including Kate Middleton, Queen Victoria, Grace Kelly and Princess Astrid of Sweden. All hoping to bring an element of luck to their love.
There are so many interesting facts about this fantastic plant. The intricacies and importance of this flower most likely make it a favourite of many royals and people of importance.
It does not just hold major significance to Queen Elizabeth and the Royals. It is a highly important flower all around the world. It is actually the national flower of Finland and has been since 1967.
La Fete du Muguet (Lily Of The Valley Day) is a celebrated day in France. On May 1st people give the ones that they love a bouquet of Lily Of The Valley. It is meant to signify good luck and celebrate the arrival of spring. It also has biblical origins as it sprang from Eve’s tears as she was exiled from the garden of Eden.
Planting Lily Of The Valley
What better to remember and pay respects to Her Majesty than to plant her favourite flower in her honour.
While traditionally a spring/summer plant, it can grow in the autumn months as it enjoys moist soil. You should mulch annually with leaf mould from collected fallen leaves or other similar organic matters. In the autumn months, you would typically divide clumps of the Lily of the Valley to allow the growth of new plants under some form of protective cover.
A big problem that can often arise in the autumn months is pests and diseases. The colder and wetter conditions can be a breeding ground for bacteria and diseases that can spread throughout a garden. These conditions also often attract pests to gardens that can cause considerable damage to crops and plants. Luckily, Lily of the Valley plants are generally free from nuisances such as harmful diseases or dangerous pests.
There are multiple variations of Lily of the Valley such as Hardwick Hall, Albostriata, Vic Pawlowski Gold and Convallaria Majalis Var Rosea all with their own stunning and unique differences.
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