The Two Columbines and Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
This could be the title of a childs bed time story.... but it's just the names of some plants growing in our garden...
These dried out columbines are standing in our garden next to a Contorted Filbert also known as a Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick. I'm always a bit curious about the names of the plants in our garden, so of course I had to investigate these two as well.
Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick (its botanical name is Corylus Avallena ‘Contorta’, in Danish it's called Troldhassel) is a filbert or hazelnut tree that started out as an unusually weird twisted branch that someone noticed growing out of filbert hedge somewhere in England. The new tree was later named after Sir Harry Lauder. He was a Scottish singer and comedian, and he achieved international success during the early part of the 20th Century. His fame came from singing Scottish ballads on stages throughout Great Britain, which endeared him to his public here and abroad. Sir Winston Churchill referred to him as “Scotland’s greatest ever ambassador”. The walking stick name for this unusual shrub was in reference to one of Harry Lauder’s most recognized companions on the stage. Always appearing in public in traditional Scottish dress, he also carried a very distinctive walking stick. It was bent, twisted and contorted from the handle down to the tip. So when it came time to name this twisted selection of filbert, the walking stick of this great entertainer came to mind.
The Columbine is a hardy but beautiful perennial flower. The name Columbine originates from the Latin word Columba which means dove, but the columbine’s true Latin name is Aquilegia which is derived from the Latin word for eagle (aquila). It was so named because the spurs of this flower reminded some observers of the the talons of an eagle. The danish name for the Columbine flower is Akeleje.
