May Day: vappu and all things spring

Hello friends!

Here we are in the final days of April 2026. The conclusion of Hiiden-Opisto courses for me is always tinged with sadness that I won’t be seeing some of those wonderful people possibly until next autumn when classes once again resume. For some of us though, we have been meeting each week to practice a bit of line-dancing choreography for a Flash Mob in the Lohja Tori square on 2 May. This will be a lot of fun, and thankfully the weather forecast projects pleasant conditions with warm temperatures and plenty of sunshine. Which is going to feel great after our current week of weather.

Much of April has been a gentle and sometimes sudden leap into warm weather – I’m talking 12-15 Celsius, and lots of sunshine. But all of a sudden, a nasty pocket of cold air blasted down from the arctic upon Scandinavia. Some parts of Finland were sent directly back into winter with 10cm of fresh snow! Luckily, we only woke up to a dust of sparse fluff which melted by lunchtime. Unfortunately, the high winds and lower temperatures from the blast have persisted for the whole week, making gardening tasks a real bugger. One thing we haven’t seen much of this month is rain. And thus we now find ourselves smack-dab into wildfire season. The Finnish Meteorological Institute issued the spring’s first wildfire warning on Sunday 29 March to Päijät-Häme. A wildfire warning is issued due to dry and flammable terrain, and when it is in effect, open fires are prohibited.

This year, the wildfire warning season began earlier than usual: typically, the Finnish Meteorological Institute issues the first wildfire warnings around mid-April. Last year, the first warning was issued to the Åland Islands already on 20 March. Still no rain in the forecast, and any possibilities of rain which do pop up are either blown out by high winds or just fizzle into nothing of substance. Rain has been elusive, so I’ve been a water mule hauling water to my newly planted roses and early spring perennials which arrived earlier in the month. I really wouldn’t mind being relieved of this— Mother Nature… if you’re listening, send us some rain already!!

With all the major garden work of pruning hydrangeas and tidying up all the perennials completed, I’ve been waiting patiently to commence the pruning of roses until we are safely on the other side of potential weather set-backs and frost. Despite our last frost date not being until about the third week of May, I’ve often been able to begin pruning roses at about this point each year. Today is set to be once again plagued with high winds which just blow straight through even my toughest garden wear clothing. So I will wait until tomorrow, when temps are higher and winds subside back to normal.

There are plenty of seedlings to pot on, and in that regard the success rate has been pretty astounding. Despite best efforts and different approaches, I wasn’t able to germinate more than a handful of Cosmos, and Aubrieta were a fat zero! Supposedly so easy to grow, but I failed no matter which way I tried them. Fortunately, I kept some of each seed for direct sowing. Better results were netted elsewhere with other seed types. Turns out Helichrysum (Strawflower) ‘Swiss Giants’ are tremendously easy to grow. I now have a gazillion or so… Other performers have been lobelia, petunia, and coleus!

No matter how it all shakes out, seed starts this year have been good. It’s likely I never would have purchased any of these plants at the shops, as I usually walk straight past all annual plants. Some of the seeds I started are perennials, and should return every year fingers crossed! I still have unopened packets for direct sowing too once the frost date passes and then everything will be outside either way to carry on for the season. Just a note to readers from elsewhere: potted up plants including both perennials and annuals are sold here at prices starting at €6, sometimes a bit less, often more depending on item. Considering I’ve potted on 100 or so plants– that’s a lot of pocket change saved!

Anticipating the upcoming good weather this weekend, I would be extremely remiss not to mention that this weekend also includes May Day celebrations which in Finland are called, Vappu. The holiday takes place on May 1st, and has its origins in traditional Pagan festivities celebrating the arrival of Spring. May 1st is also Labour Day, a day to commemorate workers. Labour groups throughout Europe gather to celebrate the struggles and gains of the labour movement. In Finland this day is also a moment to collectively appreciate the efforts of university studies by the wearing of white caps (ylioppilaslakki) to mark the occasion, whether former or current student. It’s typical to see middle-aged and older participants wearing their caps at many of the picnics and gatherings which are sure to be in abundance this year on account of the good weather. As time has progressed, the pre-party celebrations have spilled into early gatherings. It’s fair to say that party goers will indeed be in the swing of celebrating most of Thursday 30 April as well as all day Friday, 1 May and the rest of the weekend!!

On notes of spring, perennials and peonies are pushing new growth which is always encouraging. The crocus were appreciated pops of joy but short flowering as they popped open during the period of warmer temperatures we had earlier in April. The anemones which just carpet the ground each spring and return every year are making themselves seen! Without them, there wouldn’t be much to look at out there at this time of year. That’s why I started introducing so many early flowering ephemerals such as Epimedium and Corydalis. It’s a long wait until they start to settle in and possibly generate reliable clumps of returning pops of spring joy. Some plants such as these really benefit from a long period of acclimating, many people, even me, put off introducing them at all because the payoff is such a long wait. The key here is that you won’t EVER have them if you don’t plant them! In most cases, the best time to do anything is right now.

Hopefully your arrival of spring has been filled with pleasant days and more moments of joy than ones of inclement weather and bad times. Should you find yourself among the many party-goers this weekend celebrating Vappu, have a wonderful time! Kippis! Cheers! Saluti!

Thank you for stopping by today! Until next time <3