If you have a garden, you probably like checking out what superstitions are attached to the plants and flowers you grow. It is a fun way to learn a bit about human history and impress the neighbors when they are checking out your flowers.
Floral Superstitions
Country Beliefs About the Mints
Luck and Ill Luck With Flowers
There is nothing which grows around which there is more superstition woven than the homely mints. Not only is mint the crowning enticement of julep, and a thing which makes sedate tabbies gambol and roll like six-month-old kittens, but, according to tradition, the different mints have supernatural properties, and there are good and bad mints. Pennyroyal, aside from its qualification as a flea discourager, is said to make a quarrelsome husband and wife stop bickering if it is given to them by some friend.
Catnip, on the other hand, when chewed creates quarrelsomeness and is said to make even mild and gentle people fierce. If catnip is held in the hand until heated and then put into the hand of another it will, so goes the superstition, so control that person that he or she cannot leave you so long as the catnip is retained in the hand.
Spearmint will prevent illness so long as it is worn about the wrist. If spearmint is mixed with salt and applied to the bite of a mad dog the wound will heal, it is said. In the olden days the children used to put a bit of spearmint in the cots on Christmas Day, believing that at the exact time when the Savior was born the mint would blossom.
The superstitions which cluster around flowers are as many as there are different flowers. It is considered unlucky to gather flowers out of season, as before and after the season they are said to belong to the fairies. The first wild flowers which are gathered by a young woman in the spring should spell the initials of her future husband, if the superstition holds true.
Here is a schedule of superstitions about finding the first flower of the season:
If found on Monday, good luck all the year.
If found on Tuesday, large undertakings which will be successful.
If found on Wednesday, a wedding in the family.
If found on Thursday, hard work with little profit.
If found on Friday, unexpected wealthy.
If found on Saturday, misfortunes.
If found on Sunday, best luck of all.
Some of the numberless flower superstitions are:
If any one asks for the flowers pinned on your dress and you refuse, you will have immediate ill luck.
To burn faded flowers is a sign of coming sorrows.
To plant a flower hedge is to bring good luck.
If you point at buds they will blight.
To hand a flower reversed to any one is to bring bad luck.
If a person wears flowers with the stems upward it is a sign that he or she is in love but does not know it.
If you pull a flower to pieces you will die of consumption.
If a person smells flowers gathered from the cemetery he will lose his sense of smell.
To have flowers wilt quickly in the hands denotes ill health.
If some one gives you a yellow flower you are going to have money.
If some one gives you a purple flower you are going to have tears and trouble.
Source: New-York tribune. (New York [N.Y.]), 01 Sept. 1907.
