Happy May Day!

Marché Raspail

Ever since we started dating oh so very long ago, on the first day of spring in the USA, Vince would present me with a bouquet of daffodils. Later when I had my own gardens, I grew many varieties of daffodils and jonquils. Even so, he still continued the tradition on March 21st.

annual autumnal bulb planting @ Darlington House

May basket

Likewise, every May Day Vince would hang a little May basket filled with lilies of the valley on the door to my dressing room or on my dressing table mirror or on the faucet of the pedestal sink in our bathroom ... somewhere where I would be sure to find it when I awoke. (A few times, there was even a piece of vintage lily of the valley jewelry hidden in the basket!)

Lily of the valley is the birth flower of May - Vince and my birthday month - and it is my favorite flower. I love them so much in fact that I even had them in my wedding bouquet and flower crown even though we were married in September and not in May.

I grew pink and white lilies of the valley in my gardens in New Jersey too and they would bloom throughout our birthday month fillling the air with their delightful fragrance. But I have never seen lilies of the valley growing in South Africa or being sold in the flower markets here. Flowering bulbs and pips need cold winters in order to bloom in the spring and I guess it just doesn't get that cold here. Besides you wouldn't ever see them on May Day anyway since it is autumn in the Southern Hemisphere in May and not spring.

So when I found this French lady selling her bouquets of lilies of the valley at the Marché Raspail, I was ecstatic. It was late April in Paris and the city's gardens were blooming with all the May flowers I had been missing for the past few years in South Africa at this time of year - lilacs, irises, wisteria, peonies and lilies of the valley.

wisteria blooming on the Coulée verte

This year it was moi who bought the muguet de mai bouquet from the flower seller in the market and surprised Vince in the morning with a little May basket to celebrate May Day.

Happy May Day!

I love lilies of the valley!