“A multitude of small delights constitute happiness.”—Charles Baudelaire
This past month of April I came across two facts that caught my gardener’s eye. First, the plant rosemary is now classified as a salvia. Second, a group of goldfinches is called a charm.
Rosemary, formerly known as Rosmarinus officinalis, has had its name changed and is now Salvia rosmarinus. This change was made by the Royal Horticulture Society’s Nomenclature and Taxonomy Advisory Group in 2019. For centuries rosemary had its own genus, but now due to DNA study, it has been subsumed into the genus Salvia. It does make sense. The flowers are similar and the foliage of both has a strong, acrid scent. But I regret the loss of the term ‘officinalis’. This is the designation that links plants to medieval monks and their collection of medicinal plants. I always imagine the monks as a bunch of plant geeks like myself, tending to their cloistered gardens, at peace with the world. But John David, head of horticultural taxonomy, assures “home gardeners should not be alarmed, as usage of ‘rosemary’ as the common name will remain.” As if it wouldn’t! To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, “Rosemary is a rosemary is a rosemary is a rosemary.”
Rosemary is native to the dry soils around the Mediterranean Sea where people thought that it survived off the dew (ros) of the sea (marinus). It has been used for culinary and medicinal purposes for centuries. In Ancient Greece garlands were worn on the head during exams to aid the memory. William Shakespeare had Ophelia state, “There’s rosemary for you, that’s for remembrance; pray you, love, remember.” The classic herbalists praised its benefits. In 1597 John Gerard wrote, “The floures made up into plates with sugar…eaten, comfort the heart, and make it merry, quicken the spirits, and make them more lively.” And Nicholas Culpeper, in 1653, claimed, “the decoction thereof in wine, helps the cold distillations of rheum into the eyes, and all other cold diseases of the head and brain, as the giddiness or swimmings therein, drowsiness of the mind and senses like stupidness, the dumb palsy, or loss of speech, the lethargy, and fallen-sickness, to be drank, and then the temples bathed therewith”.
In our climate of frigid winters rosemary is best planted in a pot and brought in for the winter, though it won’t survive in a hot, dry environment. A cool, bright, underheated spot is best. Visit it often and, like Gertrude Jekyll suggests, “draw the kindly branchlets through one’s hand and have the enjoyment of their incomparable fragrance.”
Ah, the charm of goldfinches. During the winter months, as the garden hibernates, I hear their plaintive calls as they come to my bird feeders for sunflower seeds and what is sold as thistle seed. The tiny black seeds are actually nyjer, the seed of a yellow daisy-like flower, Guizotia abbyssinica, native to Ethiopia, where the plant is used as fodder for sheep and the seeds are used to produce cooking oil, or herbal medicine.
The goldfinch, Spinos tristus, is a delight to see and hear. They fly in a gentle bouncing fashion, dipping and rising through the air, then coming down to gather small seeds from thistles and milkweed and dandelions. Musical sounds accompany their flight. These little creatures don’t nest and produce young until late spring when there are seeds to feed the chicks as they mostly eat vegetation. In the garden they love the seeds of echinacea, rudbeckia, eupatorium, and zinnias. When deadheading leave some seedheads for the birds and don’t be overly tidy at the end of the season in the garden or the wild edges. Those weeds are packed with food for all kinds of beings. Late in the season, when the sunflowers set seed, is a time to sit in the garden and watch the goldfinches and their acrobatic extraction of sunflower seeds, hanging upside down from the drooping flower heads. The golden feathers against a blue autumnal sky and the melodic soundtrack are pure delight from a charm of goldfinches, a perfect excuse to stop and breathe and wonder.
Rosemary and goldfinches are vehicles for enjoyment of all the senses. The herb is so aromatic as it is brushed against and picking the needle-like foliage and chopping and eating with roasted potatoes a treat. The goldfinches charm with the beauty of their plumage, their acrobatics and flight and the music of their song. The garden, a sensual paradise, awaits.
“The garden is a delight to the eye and a solace for the soul.”—May Sarton
May 2022