The Local Landscape Architect

JEFF STAPLETON, THE LOCAL LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

PLANTS FOR A MERRY CHRISTMAS

With the writing of this column we are fast approaching Christmas…the second holiest day on the Christian calendar when we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Many of our Christmas traditions stretch back over centuries, even millennia, including our use of plants. So, in honor of the season, this extended holiday column is going to focus on some plants that we commonly find in our Christmas decorations…indoors and out. Now, as with all lists, I will assuredly leave out plants with a rich Christmas tradition of their own. That being said, it’s hard to imagine Christmas without seeing the plants below in some shape or fashion, so let’s get started. Boxwood: “American” boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) first made its way to Virginia soon after British colonization, when “Virginia” encompassed all of North America. It is no wonder boxwood is so prominent during the holiday then, considering its Christmas tradition in the Commonwealth stretches back four centuries. Boxwood has numerous uses for Christmas decorations inside the home and in the landscape. Pyramidal cultivars or clipped topiaries make wonderful live Christmas trees in the garden, and the sturdy foliage of Buxus easily supports small lights. Boxwoods readily supply greenery for fresh Christmas decorations, including garlands and wreaths, but my favorite boxwood decorations for Christmas are kissing balls and table trees. Table trees are, well, small Christmas trees constructed of boxwood clippings. Kissing balls are small spheres formed out of boxwood leaves and typically hung over interior archways or openings. Per the name (and like the more common mistletoe), couples who find themselves under one are supposed to smooch. Holly: With green leaves and red berries, many types of evergreen hollies (ilex species) are always dressed in Christmas colors. In addition, the holly was the original Holy tree of Christendom, full of legend and symbolism (and yes, holly is derived from the word holy). Don’t believe me? Listen carefully to the words of the traditional carol The Holly and the Ivy; its white flowers symbolize Christ’s birth, its red berries His blood, and its spiny leaves His crucifixion. Holly’s link to Christmas is probably as old as the holiday’s celebration. In terms of Christmas decorations, few plants can surpass its uses. Even more so than boxwood, tree type hollies like English and American (I. aquifolium and I. opaca, respectively) make perfect live Christmas trees and frames for lights in the garden. Holly boughs and their berries make wonderful window dressings, garlands, wreaths, and candle wreaths. So this Christmas be jolly and “Deck the halls with boughs of holly!” Mistletoe: Among traditional Christmas plants, mistletoe probably possesses the deepest pagan roots of all. Likely due to its parasitic nature and evergreen leaves, mistletoe was considered sacred among most of the ancient cultures in Europe. Coveted as a symbol of divine masculinity, it was used in many fertility rituals and as a medicine for barrenness. Despite the plant’s pagan pedigree, the actual custom

Left: a boxwood table tree dressed with fresh cranberries Center: a boxwood kissing ball Right: a holly cross

Copyright 2017 ♦ STAPLETON LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, PLLC ♦ (276) 479-3310 ♦ www.stapletonlandarch.com ♦ [email protected] PLANTS FOR A MERRY CHRISTMAS, CONTINUED of kissing a girl under the mistletoe seems to have developed in the early centuries of Christian Europe. It is a tradition nearly all Americans are familiar with, but few know how involved the true custom is. First, mistletoe is not supposed to touch the ground from the time of its harvest ‘til its removal at Candlemas, February 2 on our calendar (whoops…I “harvest” mine with a shotgun). Furthermore, it must be the last of the Christmas greens to be removed from a home. Even the custom of kissing is more involved than we typically observe. Originally, sprigs of mistletoe hung in houses were required to have berries on them. Each time a young man kissed a girl under the mistletoe, he was required to pluck one berry from the sprig. Once the berries were all gone, the privileged kissing ended. You can sometimes find mistletoe in stores, but it is more fun to harvest it yourself. Though rumored to favor oaks (another belief taken from pagan Europe), mistletoe grows in most of our native hardwoods. It’s pretty easy to spot this time of year…just look for a mass of green in an otherwise leafless tree. Regardless of lore, a twenty gauge shotgun seems to be just the right tool to harvest mistletoe from the treetops. Poinsettia: It’s hard for Americans to imagine Christmas without the bright red bracts of poinsettia, but in truth its American Christmas tradition is far and away the shortest of the plants covered here. Euphorbia pulcherrima was first introduced into the United States in 1825 by our first minister to Mexico, the botanist Joel R. Poinsett, from whom we derive its common name. Gradually, its popularity as a decorative seasonal plant spread throughout the country. Indigenous to Mexico and Central America, in its native lands poinsettia holds a Christmas pedigree steeped in legend, similar to holly in Europe. According to a 16th century Mexican story, the first poinsettia sprouted from a bundle of weeds left on a church altar on Christmas by a poor girl at the encouragement of an angel. Its red bracts (modified Top: our native Mistletoe, leaves, not flowers) symbolize Christ’s blood, and their arrangement the Star of Phoradendron serotinum Bethlehem. In our region, poinsettias thrive as indoor ornamentals. Equally beautiful in masses or as individual plants, their red or white bracts can make Above: European Mistletoe, festive any dreary spot in a home (there’re also pink poinsettias, but pink is not a Viscum album Christmas color to me…let’s save those for the third Sunday in Advent). Below: A fireplace full of poinsettia

Conifers: “That most important of Christmas symbols” was how our favorite vacation bumbler Clark Griswold referred to the beloved Christmas tree. Though not as ancient a symbol as holly, the use of a conifer tree to celebrate Christmas dates back to the late fifteenth century in Estonia, Latvia, and Northern Germany. While our media often stress that Christmas trees have pagan origins, in truth the modern Christmas tree evolved from a merger of coniferous “paradise trees” used in Germanic Christian mystery plays held on December 24 (the liturgical day of Adam and Eve) and Christmas pyramids. In the mystery plays, paradise trees were decorated with apples (symbolizing the forbidden fruit) and communion wafers (for redemption). Christmas pyramids were vertical wooden carousels containing figurines, various Christian symbols, and topped with a spinning star. As the two Christian entities merged, the tree replaced the pyramid, red balls replaced real apples, and cookies replaced the wafers. The figurines became ornaments on the tree. The protestant reformation saw the conifer shift from a prop in Catholic plays to a purely Christmas symbol. The addition of lights (originally candles) on Christmas trees is attributed to protestant reformer Martin Luther. German Protestants brought the tradition to America around the time of the Revolutionary War, and it has remained an American Christmas symbol ever since. While any conifer can act as an indoor or outdoor Christmas tree, most Americans now think of spruce, pine, or fir as the perfect tree. However, in most of Virginia (and a lot of the rural southeast), the traditional Christmas tree was red cedar, Juniperus virginiana. It was common, pleasantly fragrant, easy to decorate, and most folks were more than happy to have them removed from their pastures. In fact, in rural Virginia the cedar’s popularity didn’t begin to wane until the past couple of decades. Beyond their use as Christmas trees, conifers are also used to create many other holiday decorations. The evergreen boughs of conifers are often used in window dressings, wreaths, and as mantle pieces. The flexible tips of pine branches in particular make excellent evergreen garlands and ropes. O Christmas tree, O Above: a decorated cedar means Christmas tree, your branches green delight us! its “Christmas in Virginia” again I certainly hope you have enjoyed this expanded Christmas issue of The Local Below: a traditional German Landscape Architect. I would love to hear about Christmas plants and traditions from your families. Most of all I want to wish each of you a safe, wonderful, blessed Christmas Pyramid Christmas season. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Left: a conifer wreath on a barn door. Right: conifer greenery in a window box. Below: a fresh pine garland drapes gracefully from a porch