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The Darling Bells of May: Lily of the Valley
The Darling Bells of May: Lily of the Valley
Ali Barwani explores the Royal connections of lily of the valley and presents a bouquet of fragrant facts about this charming flower.
A Royal Favourite.
With the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023 taking place this week, gardening is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. However, this year’s Chelsea Flower Show will feel different without a visit from a very special visitor, the late Queen Elizabeth II, who attended the show nearly every year throughout her 70-year reign.
When the RHS held its #mychelseagarden campaign in 2020, the Royal Family Instagram account announced that ‘The Queen has chosen lily of the valley… Lily of the valley featured in Her Majesty’s coronation bouquet and has held special associations since.’ The post included photographs of lily of the valley growing in the Buckingham Palace gardens.
https://twitter.com/royalfamily/status/1262384562170101762
When Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Platinum Jubilee in 2022 the RHS Chelsea Flower Show marked the event with a bespoke floral portrait by celebrity florist Simon Lycett. The fabulous flower arrangement consisted of a steel silhouette portrait of her majesty, the inner shelves of which were filled with seventy terracotta pots planted with the Queen’s favourite flower, lily of the valley – each pot representing a year of her reign.
Queen Elizabeth’s love of this delicate flower was recalled during the Coronation on the Robe of State worn by Queen Camilla, which featured lily of the valley motifs.
Royal Wedding Bouquets.
Lily of the valley has long been popular in Royal wedding bouquets. In 1923, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon chose roses and lily of the valley for her bridal bouquet when she married Prince Albert, Duke of York (the future King George VI). Princess Anne carried a bouquet of roses and lily of the valley for her wedding to Captain Mark Phillips in 1973. Camilla Parker-Bowles included lily of the valley in her wedding bouquet when she married Prince Charles in 2005. Kate Middleton had lily of the valley among the blooms in her wedding bouquet. Strangely, this traditional choice only became controversial when it appeared in Megan Markle’s wedding bouquet – with the Express newspaper’s headline screaming ‘How Meghan Markle’s flowers may have put Princess Charlotte’s life at risk.’
The charm of the lily of the valley lies in its pretty flowers, but, beyond that beauty there is a hint of poison – but more of that later!
The Look.
Lily of the valley is familiar to many as a cottage garden flower. The individual flowers are enchanting – small, white, waxy, and bell-shaped with a flared rim of petal tips. The tiny flowers are carried on curving racemes above distinctive ovate leaves occurring in pairs. The flowers produce a rich and sweet perfume.
The poet Shelley described it thus:
And the Naiad-like Lily of the vale,
Whom youth makes so fair and passion so pale,
That the light of its tremulous bells is seen,
Through their pavilions of tender green.
Where Does it Grow?
Although delicate looking, it is a hardy native. Lily of the valley flourishes in scrubland or dry woodland valleys where it can form large colonies. Its rhizomes spread underground, with each new branch producing one pair of leaves a year. Nowadays, it is rare to find large wild colonies of this plant. Lily of the valley can flower in late April in a warm spring – but is generally at its best in May and June. Its eventual fruit is a red berry.
Lily of the valley grows wild in temperate woodlands across the Northern Hemisphere, from Europe across to Asia, and in the eastern USA.
Once thought to belong in the lily plant family, lily of the valley is now placed in the asparagus plant family. Many botanists recognise only one species of lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis, but with several sub-species. Convallaria majalis subsp. majalis from Europe and Asia, Convallaria majalis subsp. montana from North America; and Convallaria majalis subsp. keiskei, which has bowl-like flowers, from Siberia, Mongolia, China, and Japan. Some botanists now distinguish C. montana and C. keiskei as separate species from C. majalis.
The genus name Convallaria comes from the Latin word for a valley, and the species name, majalis means May.
In the Garden.
Lily of the valley has long been cultivated in gardens. It can be spotted in an early 15th century garden painting ‘Little Garden of Paradise’ by the Upper Rhenish Master.
https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/de/werk/das-paradiesgaertlein
William Turner, the father of English botany, writing in 1548, stated that he had never seen it growing outside a garden.
Over time, several selected garden strains have emerged. Among the most popular are those with variegated leaves, such as ‘Hardwick Hall’, the double-flowered ‘Prolificans’, and the pink flowered form ‘Rosea’. There is also a large form called ‘Fortins Giant’ that is worth seeking out.
In Popular Culture.
The peak of popularity for lily of the valley was the Victorian era, when many novel ways of growing and displaying the flowers were developed. These included creating elaborate displays by arranging the crowns (called ‘pips) in pans or wire frames. According to the sentimental 19th century ‘Language of Flowers’, lily of the valley signified ‘domestic happiness and conjugal bliss’ – making them an ideal wedding flower.
Their country names included ‘May lily’ and ‘May bells’. In Victorian times, countryfolk brought large baskets of these blooms into towns to sell during the month of May. Lily of valley became a popular fragrance for soaps and other toiletries.
In France, lily of the valley is known as muguet. On May 1st stalls selling posies of muguet appear on street corners and roadsides across France. The flowers are presented to friends and relatives to mark the arrival of spring and as a gesture of goodwill.
In the Roman calendar, the month of May is dedicated to Mary. Lily of the valley is also known as ‘Our Lady’s Tears’. This name derives from the legend that the tears Mary shed as she stood by the cross fell to the ground and sprang up as lily of the valley. In Spain the flower is known as ‘Sello de Santa Maria’ or ‘Saint Mary’s Seal’.
Medicinal Uses.
The beauty of the flowers and scent of lily of the valley belie its toxicity. All parts of the plant contain powerful, potentially lethal glycosides including convallotoxin, that affect the cardiac muscle.
John Gerard who published his famous ‘Herball’ in 1597, collected lily of the valley on Hampstead Heath where it then grew in profusion. Gerard recommended its use as a heart tonic, for the treatment of gout, ‘dumb palsie’, and for those ‘fallen into apoplexy’. Tinctures of the plant have been used as a diuretic, memory-enhancer, sedative, emetic, and laxative. All parts of this plant are poisonous and, therefore not appropriate for self-medication.
A Final Royal Flourish.
The most lavish homage to this woodland flower was created by the Fabergé workshop using diamonds, pearls, and gold for flowers, and carved nephrite and guilloché enamel leaves. The two most famous examples are the ‘Lily of the Valley Basket’ presented by Tsar Nicholas II to the Tsarina in 1896, and the ‘Lilies of the Valley Egg’ which he gave to his wife at Easter 1898.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/238777
Both good choices, as pearls were the Tsarina’s favourite jewels and lily of the valley was her favourite flower. It grew in the gardens of the Winter Palace in abundance, and the Russian Imperial family would enjoy early lily of the valley flowers imported from the South of France, kept fresh during their journey on blocks of ice.
But however artful these bejewelled creations, they owe their beauty to the humble flower named after this month.
To Find out About the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show
Where to See Convallaria:
A National Plant Collection of Convallaria is held at Kingston Lacy, Wimborne, Dorset.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/dorset/kingston-lacy
The National Plant Collection of variegated and yellow leaved Convallaria is held by Philip Oostenbrink in Kent:
