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“Old trees, wild trees.” That’s something Treebeard the Ent says in Lord of the Rings. And it’s what excited me about trying new tea varieties. Or rather, old kinds—very old. Just ones I had not tried. 

I heard about the tea varietal Purple Joy on social media. A fellow tea lover posted his experience trying a wild tea, that is, a tea from wild trees. I had to try it too. Purple Joy is a black tea, and the purveyor Tea-Side also has wild green, oolong, and white tea, so I ordered one of each. I’ve seen photos of tea farming before and the tea plants looked like the clipped shrubbery in the knot gardens of English castles, laid out in mathematically precise rows, but the photos on Tea-Side’s website were pictures of huge individual trees, growing as they will in a jungle of random other plants. They looked a bit Entish. 

I’ll be the first to admit it. I’ve never had a green thumb. Not even a green pinky. Now I know that succulents have been quite trendy for a spell, but with good reason. They are incredibly self-sufficient and easy to care for. Their leaves don’t tend to shed or leave little leaflets all over your floor. In fact, their often full, pleasing, rubbery leaves are what retain all the water that you douse them with– often as little as one good soak in the sink a week. Another thing that makes them so fun is they come in a vast array of shapes and sizes: viny, cascading, or growing full and upward like a sturdy little tree. Some flower, aloe and cacti fall into the category, and all seem to have whimsical names.

Choosing and Caring for Your Plants

Most like some sunlight, so you should definitely take that into consideration when looking for the right location for your cheery indoor greenery. Two of my recently acquired succulent plants currently reside in my kitchen. The viny ones do especially well as hanging plants, so kitty can’t get at them to nibble something she shouldn’t. One of the longest lasting indoors succulent that I owned survived three moves over a five-year period was a rope Hoya plant. It almost looked fake, but upon closer inspection, you could feel that these twisty, plump, round leaves were definitely the real deal. I believe it would have even survived longer, had I not accidently toppled it after rewatering one day. My replanting attempts definitely need some work, but that’s a tale for another time. When I visited my neighborhood Stein’s Garden & Home in search of more succulents to brighten up my continued pandemic winter this year, alas they had no ropas. One of the saleswomen referred to it as a “grandma plant” that she hadn’t seen in a while.

Key moments in the lives of plants do not always tie in to the standard eight festivals. Yes, the snowdrops flower at Imbolc and hawthorn blooms around Beltain and the grain is generally ripe for Lugnasadh, but these are just a few plants. Many other plants come into their own at other times in the year. A real relationship with the plant life of the UK calls for more attention than just festival plants. If you are not in the UK, your seasonal plants will be different and I think it’s really important to engage with what’s around you, not what comes from the history of the festival.

One of my favourite April wildflowers is the Kingcup – they tend to bloom once it starts feeling warm and springish. Large, exuberant yellow flowers, often occurring in great profusion.  Kingcups favour damp places, canal edges, riverbanks, ponds and streams.

Spring rituals mean for me that it's time to get outside and in the fields.  I've not lived on my family farm for nearly forty years but every spring when the snow melts away but we still have the ice in the breeze, I want to be on the land.

This year, I was driving to work and saw the farmers out with their huge tractors discing (not as invasive as a plow) the soil.  The gray which I relate to winter was replaced with the rich dark coffee color which means it's time to start planting.  There's a smell in the air which I have never been able to describe but it is spring.  

My name is Sandra Kynes and I’m a writer who loves to develop creative ways to explore the magic of the world and then integrate them into my spiritual practices and everyday life. I find the green world endlessly fascinating in so many aspects: from magic and lore to science and culture.

Hi everyone! My name is Wendy and I'm an herbalist, writer, mother of 3 humans and many 4 leggeds. I grew up in the Midwest with a Grandmother who encouraged me to play with plants. Doesn't every little girl pretend to make medicine when they were little? Well, I thought we all did. However, I didn't see my life path as being an herbalist or talking about plants and herbs like an addict. So, yes, my name is Wendy, and I am a plant addict.

Columbine/Aquilegia

(Aquilegia Canadensis, Aquilegia vulgaris)