Pussy Willow
Pussy willow is a name given to many of the smaller species of willows and sallows when their furry catkins are young in early spring. Before the male catkins come into full flower they are covered in fine, greyish fur, leading to a fancied likeness to pussy cats. The catkins appear long before the leaves and are one of the earliest signs of spring.
Landscape Design
For centuries, landscape designers have grown willows for their colourful winter-bare stems and branches, but it’s only in this century that extensive areas have been devoted to them and they have been used en masse as the main materials of a new style of winter planting, most notably at places like Bressingham Gardens in Norfolk.
Some of the best designer willows are Salix alba Britzensis (brass stem bases, cinnabar to scarlet tips), S. alba var. vitellina (brilliant pale gold) and S. daphnoides (aubergine bloomed with silver).
Easter Willows
Just as palms are a symbol of Easter in this country, so pussy willows are a symbol of Easter in many east European and Baltic states including the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Slovakia Ukraine and Finland. “The pussy willow is the one that tells the rest of the world and all the other flora, trees and bushes it’s time to wake up. It’s the wake up call,” said Polish Father Czeslaw Krysa.
Christians use palms as a symbol of greeting on Palm Sunday but according to Polish tradition, Jesus visited a forest on Palm Sunday, barren by winter conditions, and commanded His angels to gather up pussy willows – with soft, cotton buds, the first blooms of spring.
Palm trees don’t grow in Ukraine (or other east European and Baltic States) so in Orthodox tradition, the palm was replaced by willow, which blooms after the first onset of winter and symbolises the beginning of a new life. The willow branch symbolises Palm Sunday for the people of the Ukraine.
After Palm Sunday services, it was customary for Ukrainians leaving church to gently tap each other with the pussy willow branches. This custom, known as “Boze Rany” (“God’s Wounds”), was done to imitate the scourging of Jesus by His captors on Good Friday. The tapping of friends with the pussy willow branches is actually a wish for good health, wealth and happiness.
Special Mention
Our thanks toTreemail supporter Dawn Lawrence of Wessex Ecological Consultancy for suggesting this month’s topic.
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org
Reference: https://news.wbfo.org/
Reference: https://ukrainianpeople.us