With Foil roll Easter Lilies appearing at my supermarket , all short and unripened after being drenched with Miracle Grow and dwarfed with growth retardant hormones so that they scarcely resemble the four understructure tall Lilium longiflorum of days gone by , these fragrant but virtually aseptic lily with their stamens removed , emasculated into meaningless brands of a holiday that now celebrates with cherry # 2 Peeps , and not the more more natural yellow one … . might as well be plastic . And I used to have intercourse Easter Lilies .
So I am thinking of other signs of springtime , that are culturally important and unquestionable . I am reminded of Japan , and mustard . At the entrances of train Stations of the Cross in March , the nanohaha make an appearance , brilliant yellow and ‘ saying that spring is nigh ’ .
Here in America , we should be familiar with Nanohana , since this mustard is something most of us practice everyday . Not as yellow mustard on our red hot , but as Canola oil . This is the same mustard , or Rapeseed that Canada makes Can - ola oil ( A made up name mashed up from CAN from Canada , and OLA , from Oleum,,,Mmmmm all part of a 1980 ’s selling strategy promoted that no one would corrupt even the healthiest oil if it was call Rapeseed crude ) . Of course , Rapeseed , is also the young plant called Rapini by the Italians , again examine that it is completely edible and healthy . So forget the urban ledgends about using rapeseed and Canola petroleum as motor oil colour ( of course , you’re able to ) , but one is not the same as the other . But confederacy theorists still feast this ‘ poison ’ on the internet .
Nanohana , in Japanese literally translate into ‘ Vegetable Flower ’ but it also can be read to mean raving mad blossom , or peak of the field . the flora is totally comestible .
The Sakura festival experience all of the promotion and Japans liberal flower fete … .. but what about Nanohana … . yellow Mustard ? Which blooms just before the cherry ?
In my garden , these rather pretty but simple flowers are the same cole harvest flowers in Cruciferae that one sees on a moolah , radish , turnip , Bok Choi or more likely , some Brocolli that one forgets to glean , and then it run low to seeded player . But in the heart and soul of a buzzing , officious and grey urban center , this bed of brilliant saffron blossoms , seemed sublime . A graphic rendering of Nanohana , Japanese Mustard FlowersThe bed was cautiously tended , certainly . With a simple bamboo fence constructed around it , and over it like a batting cage , presumptively to keep the ravens off of it ( they we ’re angry , high in the Camellia Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree above me ) . But I so need to recreate this variety of planting in my New England garden . So I bought some mustard ejaculate at Sakata Nursery , and brought it home . I would imagine that it demand cold temperatures most for sure , and I feel that I may wait until September to plant , since a outpouring planting in our mood would surely develop too quickly with it ’s temperature range which can descale upward from 25 deg . F to 8- deg F in a week . But , in the perfect spring , and an other March sowing , I would guess that I could renovate the Japan effect of planting mustard for the joy of it ’s fountain blossom , which , like many Nipponese plant , is crucial culturally to the Japanese . Nanohana Candles for giving giving . Nothing say ’s outpouring like Rapeseed crude oil candle in a pretty box !
Known in Japan as Nanohana , March , is the Nanohana time of year for most of Japan . In small window sill planting , to decks and terrace with pots of icteric nanohana , to Park and public places , one can see the celebration of the Mustard bloom , with it ’s graphically simple four petal ( like a cross- hence , Crucifer , or hinting of it ’s plant family , Cruciferae ) . All crucifer have four petals , be they high alpine relatives , or tropic giant . An easy giveaway for botanist . The Nanohana March , a outflow pass event in Japan . The Ibusuki Marathon is based around the theme of Nanohana , and this Nanohana March , is another Sunday walkway event in Yokohama and other component part of Japan .
Mmmm … Nanohana PastryNot as omnipresent as other flower festivals like the cherry tree blossoms of spring ( Sakura ) or primula ( sakuraso ) , or as express in some of my past bill like the Plum Flowers ( Ume ) in February , or the Morning Glories of July ( Asagao ) , this little , simple-minded flower is still powerful in a certain calendar week , in a sure calendar month . If only the rest of the worldly concern could observe such a simple event , like the blossoming of the lowly table mustard … cultural relevance can lift the more terrene of events . Here in Boston , we are celebrate that the Red Sox are embark on their season today , with tidings reports of how many hotdogs ( Fenway Franks ) are trade in one day ( 22,000 ) . But what , I say … .. about the leaf mustard ? The Japanese may still love their baseball game more than Nanohana , but this event does day of the month back to the 1400 ’s Edo menstruation whereas Baseball only run back 30 years or so in Japan . A Woodblock Print of Mustard Blossoms from 1600For me , Nanohana is a home run .
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