Need some help - Elderflower ID
- Thread starter Dan S
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That looks like Hawthorn, which is in flower just now, but the Elders aren't. (well here they aren't 
)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crataegus
cheers,
Toddy
)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crataegus
cheers,
Toddy
Doesn't have the same perfume but here's a recipe LINK Though never used it myself. The only fruit blossom we were allowed to use was elderberry. It's the old superstition about bringing fruit blossom in the house - brings bad luck and famine. (Which is sensible when you think of it as if you cut all the flowers off you'll not have any fruit set later in the year. (And Hawthorn syrup - from the haws - is just too good to miss.)
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Here is some Elderberry for comparison...........don't forget to click on the scent option 'cause the perfume is delish.
Those don't look like hawthorn leaves either, so prehaps BR is right
Hawthorn.
Those don't look like hawthorn leaves either, so prehaps BR is right
Hawthorn.
Doesn't have the same perfume but here's a recipe LINK Though never used it myself. The only fruit blossom we were allowed to use was elderberry. It's the old superstition about bringing fruit blossom in the house - brings bad luck and famine. (Which is sensible when you think of it as if you cut all the flowers off you'll not have any fruit set later in the year. (And Hawthorn syrup - from the haws - is just too good to miss.)
It is May blossom that "breaks your Mother's heart" and possibly goes back to celebration "a'Maying" when according to a Puritan Vicar those girls a'Maying and staying out all night would be "defiled" and thus bringing in the may blossom to the house might indicate this to the dismay of mothers.
We have Rowans here; I forget that there are others in the family without the composite leaves.Whitebeam....I'll keep a look out for those
Thank you for the links Mayflower stinks. There's no way anyone would want to bring it into the house
Elder now, that's sweet and very tasty May is the first of the real washing months in the past. Wash your face in the dew on Mayday and you'll be beautiful all year
Wash your hair in water with the birch leaves boiled up in it and it'll be clean and shiny and smell lovely. The soapwort is up too, and sarks and shifts were stripped off and washed.....of course watching the girls at their ablutions, especially wet, and half dressed always attracted suitors...funny how the churchmen always blame the lassies though M
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In Sweden I've had the whole Elderflower heads, dipped in pancake batter and fried. Wasn't really to my taste but some people seemed to really like it.
Mayflower stinks. There's no way anyone would want to bring it into the house
I like the smell of hawthorn flowers
funny how the churchmen always blame the lassies though
Not surprising, they are the source of all evil
okenest:
Whitebeams are lovely - I have planted plain s. aria here. They hybridise easily with rowans and other trees creating lots of sub species. Good food for birds (looks like tiny apples) and moths like the foliage. There is a lane lined with them round here where they have all just been cut into a neat shape - lovely trees
I know of them as kind of rare island species trees up here....Arran and Jura have them, dwarfed size trees, but it's mostly rowan around us here. I'm sure I've seen the little apples on a tree though, and it wasn't an apple, iimmc.
I've taken photos of the rowan and the hawthorn flourish and I'll get them up later on.
I'm looking forward to the elder flourish It makes such lovely early Summer foods and drinks
M
I've taken photos of the rowan and the hawthorn flourish and I'll get them up later on.
I'm looking forward to the elder flourish
It makes such lovely early Summer foods and drinks M
