Flower Day is a term used by those Biodynamic growers following a concept popularized by German market gardener Maria Thun (1922-2012). Thun held that when the Moon passes in front of those star constellations which relate to the element of “air” or “light” – namely Water Bearer [“Aquarius”], Twins [“Gemini”] and Scales [Libra”] – impulses favouring flowering occurred. Flowering plants sown and tended on Flower days showed enhanced stem and shoot growth and a more profuse display of flowers (Maria Thun, 2003, p.135).

Working to Flower Days: During the 27.3 days the sidereal moon takes to orbit Earth it spends a week or so in front of one of the three air-flower constellations, in three separate periods occuring on average every nine days and lasting between two to three days each time. The order is always the same: Scales, Water Bearer, Twins and then back to Scales and so on. Scales lies between Virgin and Scorpion, the somewhat faint and thus hard to spot Water Bearer lies between Ram and Fishes, and Twins lies between Bull and Crab. Of the constellations along the zodiac Water Bearer and Scales are hardest to spot in the night sky because their stars are quite faint. Twins is so-called because its two brightest stars, Castor (in fact three double stars or a sextuple) and Pollux (the brightest of the two), are easy to spot and lie close together. Note that because the moon orbits the earth in an ellipse, its time in front of any constellation will be shorter at perigee (moon’s closest point to earth) and longer at apogee (moon’s farthest point from earth).

Examples of air-flower crops: Only crops whose edible part both grows above-ground and is a flower are treated as flower crops by Biodynamic gardeners. Examples: Broccoli. Calabrese. Cauliflower. Globe artichoke.

Non-English Language terms: Flower days les jours fleurs (French); i giorni fiore (Italian). Scales la Balance (French); Bilancia (Italian); Libra (Spanish). Twins les Gémeaux (French); gemelli (Italian); Géminis (Spanish). Waterbearer le Verseau (French); Acquario (Italian); Acuario (Spanish).

Bibliography

Biodynamic Gardening (Dorling Kindersley, 2015).

Biodynamic Wine (Infinite Ideas, 2016).

Maria Thun (2003), Results from the biodynamic sowing and planting calendar (Floris Books, 2003).