Camellia’s originate from China and are also known as a tea plant and in Japan they are often called a Japanese Rose. The Camellia represents the union between two lovers in China and in Latin the word Camellia means “helper to the priest”. They symbolise love, affection and admiration.

So I’m a little late with my blog, the Easter weekend ran away with me and now it’s Tuesday!

I hope everybody had a lovely weekend. What a mix of weather? Warm and sunny, windy and sunny, cold and snow! Only in the UK could this happen. Anyway, enough about the weather, for those who celebrate Easter I hope you were able to celebrate the way you wanted and for those that don’t I hope you had a lovely relaxing bank holiday and I hope everyone got all the chocolate they could eat.

Now about the crochet, seeing this is what this blog is meant to be about… I’m sure that previously I said that I wouldn’t be making anymore flowers for a while. Well how wrong could I be? I follow the lovely blogger and crochet designer Lucy @attic24 and she lives in a truly beautiful part of the UK and posts lovely photo’s not only of the area where she lives of which I am only slightly jealous but also of all her amazing crochet of which she is exceedingly prolific. I have now completed or adapted several of her patterns to gift to people or for my own purpose this brings me nicely to why I have ended up making more flowers  – It’s all Lucy’s fault! On one of her recent blogs she had decorated her mantel for spring and hanging from the mantel was the cutest of garlands. For some reason I couldn’t get the garland out of my head and eventually gave in and made my own, following Lucy’s patterns for Polyanthus flowers and Hawthorn blossom.

Is there any significance in a polyanthus? It is a hybrid of the wild primrose and primulas and is one of the first flowers to open at the start of spring. It is often viewed as a symbol of femininity. Hawthorn trees are often referred to as fairy trees as it was believed that fairies lived in them. Christian tradition denotes that the hawthorn was representative of their struggles to suppress pagan beliefs. The hawthorn flower is regarded as a symbol of love, abundance and longevity.

Did you know that garlands have been part of religious rituals and traditions for a long time? In Egyptian times flower garlands were placed on mummies to celebrate the entering of the afterlife. Garlands were used by the Greeks to decorate their homes, temples and banqueting tables. During Roman times rose petal garlands were worn and carved wooden garlands decorated homes. In Renaissance paintings garlands are a recurring theme. Garlands of foliage and tiny flowers were popular in the Byzantine culture. The 15^th and 16^th centuries popularised the wearing of garlands, especially rose, at festivals, weddings and pageants. They became of religious significance when they were draped over religious statues during the European Middle Ages and Hindus across the world have attached spiritual meaning to flowers by the wearing of them and the embellishing of their statues with blessed garlands.

Lucy definitely chose the perfect pairing of flowers for her garland and it explains its prettiness. I certainly enjoyed making this garland and I think it would be the perfect garland for weddings and not just spring ones, what do you think?

I will blog again at the weekend as I have some wips that I can introduce you to. I really need to knuckle down, that’s if I don’t get distracted by new patterns, ideas etc, and try and get these completed although, they won’t be that quick as they are largish projects and so a distraction isn’t such a bad thing as it ensures I don’t get bored!

Bye for now