Jaglac & Visibaba
Some people are just born storytellers. Whether on a Tuesday afternoon or a Saturday morning reviewing stone samples, or over a long Sunday lunch, Ivan Salic sits firmly within this camp – as my family recently found out when Ivan and his wife came over to our place.
During a walk around the garden and nursery to look at cut stone steps that Ivan had provided for us, a woodland flower caught Ivan’s eye and he exclaimed “Jaglac” !
Naturally, I wanted to hear more about the place that jaglac (Primula vulgaris) occupies within Croatian culture and woodlands – such as the forest floor at Plitvice above, where Logan saw P. vulgaris after its flowering season.
Ever the smooth guy, Ivan recounted to us how, as a boy, he collected the flowers (together with some of the girls from the area) to give to his teacher – as jaglac is an important harbinger of spring in several countries throughout Europe.
In wild places throughout Europe, Primula vulgaris often grows in relatively close proximity to its relative, the cowslip (P. veris) – a plant that is also sometimes referred to as jaglac. This variable species is shown here growing at Lake Aoos in Greece – which Logan and his partner visited last year.
In terms of symbolism relating to the change-over of seasons, the earlier-flowering P. vulgaris is likely to be the more significant species, for the way in which it breaks through the comparative inactivity of late winter.
As a child, P. vulgaris was a strong marker in our year, due to the number of primroses that my mother had built up in our garden. These were originally gifted from an older couple down the road who I regularly visited to learn worthy things and be given sticks of Double Mint chewing gum.
Picking flowers for a bud vase in late winter was one of the earliest habits that I developed around the garden – aside from hitting cricket balls through windows. It’s therefore gratifying that we have now built up a good number of jaglac at the entrance to our studio, and continue that tradition.
Whilst telling us about jaglac, Ivan described another wildflower that plays a role in marking the seasons in Croatia. Visibaba (Galanthus spp.) is derived from the Croatian term for ‘nodding’ or ‘hanging grandma’, and it appears even earlier than the primrose.
As luck would have it, our workplace would meet with Croatian approval, as we have around 7 different Mediterranean species/varieties of visibaba that precede jaglac by a couple of months. We’re always interested in the human significance of plants in their native environments, and Ivan’s stories about a childhood in Croatia add more depth to our own personal engagement with these species.
