Autumn Flowers

 

 

 

29.8

For my birthday at the end of August I recieved this lovely bouquet of flowers - "all the way from Scotland"... Even if of course the actual bouquet was put together by a florist here in Borås, Sweden. I was quite impressed that they had managed to incorporate flowers to actually remind me of Scotland, though: Thistles (which I recall is the national flower of Scotland) + something resembling heather. (Having done a bit of research now, I think they probably aren't heather though, but some sort of sea lavender.)  

The bouquet seemed to remain totally unchanged for about 1½ week! (I just changed the water in the vase a couple of times.) But then the carnations and chrysanthemum started to fade a bit; and I decided to break up the bouquet. The 'heather' and thistles felt like they had just dried, so I hung those upside down to dry some more for another 1½ week. Two twigs of green leaves still looked just the same, so I put those back in water in a different vase. They still look the same after three weeks!

20.9

Google Image Search identifies these as Ruscus hypophyllum - "a species of shrub in the family Asparagaceae". According to some forums they may remain unchanged for weeks, in water; while other people have apparently managed to get them to grow roots. I guess I'll just have to leave them and see what happens! 
 

The dried thistles and whatever-it-is I have now put in a vase without water, on the shelf by a coastal landscape painted by my friend Lena N; an original water colour of hers which I bought when visiting her exhibition in Smögen on the west coast of Sweden a couple of years ago.

 

No-one is truly sure of how the thistle came to be Scotland’s national flower. A well-known story though attributes the thistle being chosen as the emblem of Scotland to the Battle of Largs (a coastal town in Ayrshire) in the 13th century. A Norse army journeyed to Scotland, intent on conquering the land. The legend has it that they left their ships under cover of night, and were planning to ambush the sleeping Scottish Clansmen. In order to be as quiet as possible, the Norsemen had removed their shoes. However as they crept across the countryside, one of them stepped onto a thorny thistle. His cry of pain roused the Scots, and the warriors rose up and defeated the invaders. 

https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/the-thistle-scotlands-national-flower