Lily of the Valley...one of my favorite flowers of spring. The scent is sweet and intoxicating in the home. Yes, they do indeed have a scent. Once back home this week, I was over joyed to see the flower bed was in bloom with hundreds of them. When I left, they were still just the green leaves. When I moved in back in 2001, I got a few bulbs to plant, and now in my bed alone there are well over 200 of them...they spread like wildfire, and a few neighbors have even dug some up and started there own bed which have flourished. The condo association is all for gardening and planting here which is nice. 
Since I'm always gone so much over the years and couldn't tend to flowers, I created a "greenery" along my condo building, with ivy, ferns, hosta, mini irises, and the Lily of the Valley which will stay green and leafy all summer once blooming is done.
I save the gardening for the mother's house. I went out to harvest some stems on Tuesday morning and they are just everywhere. It's often also where the fox will play late at night, scampering around. Often times too, the birds will be under the leafing getting the fallen bird seeds. I'm lucky to have so much Lily of the Valley, as they are the second most expensive flower one can buy from a florist, which is why you rarely see it in a shop. Just a small nosegay will run between $40-50.My harvest....
But like the Mistress, it is pretty but deadly. Ask my last three husbands!!!!!! Lily of the Valley is highly toxic to both people and animals when ingested. All parts of the planet, including the flowers bells that often tempt children and animals to eat contain cardiac glycosides, which will impact the heart. They are a "grade 1" deadly flower on the poison scale. They can induce cardiac arrest, severe and altering seizures, extreme violent nausea, cause hallucinations and death. They are delicate, gorgeous and a tantalizing flower but one of the deadliest flowers in existence. But as long as you don't eat them you'll be fine. I got four vases filled.
I'm currently sending off a batch of my Lily Cookies to half the members of the GQP, with my left over lily of the valley.... while Bonnie and Clyde keep me company, the dears.
They are so pretty. I don't think I ever saw them up so close. The pictures are great.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes...get those cookies off ASAP!!!!!
Remind me to never piss you off.
ReplyDeleteI love Lily of the Valley too, but I had no idea they were so expensive, or poisonous. Your flower bed sure does have a lot of them. And I like your idea of a "greenery"
ReplyDeleteWhew! I'm glad I received a different cookie than the ones contemplated here! I've been munching on them for a week with no ill effects (weight gain excluded), so I know you love me!
ReplyDeleteThese are very pretty, though.
wait. how do you rate? you got cookies? i sleep with him and don't get cookies.
DeleteHey, TL, you sleep with him. Isn't that gift enough? Being an old, straight, married, woman, cookies are fine for me. Glass half full, my boy! You can at least bounce quarters!
DeleteAre we talking sex and cookies. You two are both lucky! I want some!!!
DeleteDo I sound whiney yet?
I should have mailed you the recipe Duchess. And I'd never send you deathly cookies...I love my my Duchess Deedles!!!!!
DeleteI don't just mail pandemic gloves to anyone!!!!!!!
Lily of the Valley does have a lovely scent, though it's hard to beat lilacs, creamy white roses, pink peonies or Gardenias! I had no idea that LOTV had become so expensive... guess that's why they're never seen in bridal bouquets anymore, LOL!
ReplyDeleteAnd Tundra...all the flowers you mentioned are so expensive currently because of the pandemic. So many floral farms and wholesalers had to lay off or close because of the virus, putting them way behind, with harvesting to send to floral shops and markets, or loss there inventory altogether. I too love lilacs...they and hyacinths are by far my favorite smelling spring flowers.
DeleteLast time I saw Lily of the valley in a wedding bouquet was the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton's. Her whole bouquet was almost all lily of the valley.
That's me: champagne taste on a beer budget, LOL!
DeleteLoverly, loverly, but good gracious
ReplyDeletedid not know about their poison issues!
I know one of the houses my folks lived
in had them but...which one - no clue.
xoxo :-)
Adore Bonnie and Clyde. Which one is Faye Dunaway? Careful 'round her, dear. I have a ton of these at The Boyfriends. Not anywhere near blooming. I am actually going to carefully transplant a bunch, as they have spread where they should not, and I rather like them. Will get plenty of dirt so as to not mess with their undersides. We will have good weather on Saturday, so will hit the garden early and work, work, work. - Kizzes.
ReplyDeleteSend me pictures of you gardening shitless!!!!!
DeleteLily-of-the-Valley are just lovely, but I can't believe they're so expensive for something so prolific. Yours are beautiful - the nosegays and the swathes of them around your hostas. I must go and see if mine are out (only a very small clump tucked away behind the raised beds that got somewhat trampled and half dug up last year)...
ReplyDeleteI couldn't even fit the whole bed of them in the picture. I suspect next year they may even round the corner Mr DeVice. They have already jump the front stairway into the other flowerbed, the other side of the porch.
DeleteSend me the recipe and I'll bake some, too!
ReplyDeleteWhat Norma Lee Drunk said!
ReplyDeleteI love lily of the valleys! They smell so nice and they grow so easily in my yard. I actually, this spring, had to take out a huge swath of them because they started encroaching on the usable part of my one garden bed. Your pictures are beautiful as always.
ReplyDeleteThey certain do multiply fast. It's like turning your back on the ocean.
DeleteSend em my way!! I can't seem to get them to take under my hemlock. We had so many in the yard growing up. These pictures are so pretty on this sunny day.
ReplyDeleteOh, wow! Thanks for all the great poison info! What a sweet treat for a mystery writer, and what a great name for a murderess... Lily of the Valley.
ReplyDeleteAnd such a pretty weapon for a murder. Except maybe an icicle, which of course, the weapon would melt away....
DeleteSuch a Green Thumb... Yes Sir!!!!
ReplyDeleteInside planets are a different story with me. I could kill a succulent.
DeleteI loved this post! Twelve years ago I moved from California to Japan then to Upstate New York. That spring, I was walking around a garden center and caught the unmistakable scent of Lily of the Valley. Instantly my mind was transported to my grandmother's house in rural Indiana, when I was very small, where she has a large patch of these growing beside the attached garage door. I loved that house and loved my grandmother. Whenever these wonderful little flowers bloom in my own garden they always remind me of her.
ReplyDeleteLily of the Valley is one of my fave perennials too. For such a teeny-tiny flower, it packs a POWERFUL scent! But I didn't know they were so deadly poisonous, so I've learned something new today, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI love how delicate the flowers are! They and all the green make me happy. They also look great in your place. I wonder how they'd do in a window box or pots? And nice to see your birds!
ReplyDeleteJosh, they actually do quite well in window boxes and pots.
DeleteOh, I love the info!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know any of this (the poisonous part is especially good to know!) but I think they're beautiful. I have not seen the bulbs at the big box store, though. Maybe I'll check to see if the neighbors have some.
Love the photos, btw and Bonnie and Clyde!
XOXO
3 or 4 plants is all you need Six...they will spread overtime, trust me. They also do well in window boxes and terra cotta pots.
DeleteMy favorite! I have many in my backyard.
ReplyDeleteLove it,all the vases look great. What a great way to add a little Spring indoors.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, send multiple rounds of Lily cookies....lots and lots of cookies.
when I go out to the garage, my backyard lily patch smells SO GOOD!
ReplyDeleteit multiplies by itself.
I could never have this flower in the house due to my allergies; outside I am good.
I can help bake lily cookies for the GQP...
I can always count on you!!!!
DeleteI adore Lily of the Valley flowers; but strangely, I cannot smell their perfume. It's a peculiarity that some people have - I have no problem with most Spring blooms such as Primulas, Narcissus, Hyacinths, Violas, Wallflowers, Lilacs, Jasmine, Viburnum or Rowan; I cannot, however, detect the scent of Witch Hazel, Mahonia nor Convallaria... Jx
ReplyDeletePS There are many exquisite plants that are deadly - including Daffodils, Foxgloves, Delphiniums, Azaleas, Monkshood, Oleander and Laburnums. Cocktail time!
Yes, often the prettiest flowers are the most deadly. Talk about smell, I just got an indoor Gardena plant.
DeleteCheers to one of my favorite queers!!!! 🥂🍸🥂
Cheers, indeed!
DeleteGardenia? PamDemic and Billie Holiday are indeed soulmates... Jx
These photos are gorgeous... soooo excited about things BLOOMING!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteDo you ever nestle the lily's in behind those scrumptious cakes and let the boys take a whiff?
Cheers to a brand new season~ These are so pretty. They look lovely in your abode. Hate to say this, but it's been very cool here...Spring is playing hide & seek once again..
ReplyDeleteLilly of the Valley was a solution to problems for Walt, aka Heisenberg, of Breaking Bad. That, and Stevia, which stevia I put in my morning coffee. And I love the idea of cookies for the GQP.
ReplyDeleteI started to read and thought I should plant lily of the valley. I continued to read and thought I should not plant lily of the valley because I love Franklin and Penelope.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
It's alright to plant if your dog don't bother plants, but if they do eat plants then not a good idea. Dogs generally are not herbivores. Buster could care less about them.
DeleteFranklin pays no attention to plants, but Penelope is very interested in them and will nibble a bit.
DeleteBeautiful and delicate. We don't have plant here.
ReplyDeleteI too had no idea about the flower being poisonous. But like you said unless you plan to eat them!!
ReplyDeleteThey really are so pretty. Thank you for sharing such lovely spring images with us, dear and happy springtime to you! :)
My mother had a huge swathe of Lily of the valley growing up against a north facing wall. They were starting to grow through and she was bothered about the wall falling down so dug them all out!!
ReplyDeleteI rescued a lot and planted them under a hedge in my garden. There they thrived for twenty odd years until I got four hens. They ate the lot. Every one. The hens have been gone a couple of years but no return of the flowers. They must not be poisonous to hens!
That is odd. I do know many birds seem to eat poisonous things with no affects. Most mammals they make I'll I read.
DeleteYour lily of the valley are glorious. My mother had them in a garden when we lived in the burbs when I was young. She never told us they were poisonous... I'll bet your cookies [ahem] are to die for. I'll never tell who sent them.
ReplyDeleteIt's my slogan....I really am to die for!
Deleteso nice!
ReplyDeleteThe best way to extract the poison from your beautiful lily of the valley is to soak the roots in alcohol (info courtesy of a detective novel). People should be taught about the poisonous plants we have in our gardens; Datura, delphinium and aconite, foxgloves, oleander, laburnum etc.. Death lurks in every border.
ReplyDeleteThere's a list of at least 30 household flowers and bushes that are deadly...but mostly if we only ingest them it seems.
DeleteNow you tell me not to eat…
ReplyDeleteSounds like a line from your bio, "delicate, gorgeous and a tantalizing but deadly"
ReplyDeleteSuch beautiful flowers...and photos!!! ...and cookies so appropriately gifted!!!
ReplyDeleteThose are beautiful flowers. I love the first photo.
ReplyDeleteI remember from my youth they were toxic. I recall Mother and grandmother talking about whether or not to dig them up due to the kids.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that the association allows that type of thing.
ReplyDelete