Click the tartan to view its entry in The Scottish Registers of Tartans which includes registration details, restrictions, and registrant information.
Unregistered tartans may link to one of the web's online design environments for similar information.
For any questions about reproduction of designs or weaving of these tartans, please contact the registrant directly or via this website.
Almond Day
“Almond blossoms wake,
Whispers of pink in spring's breath,
Nature's soft caress."
~ Almond Blossom Haiku
Bloom, almond trees, bloom! If you are fond of almonds or marzipan (sweetened almond paste), this beautiful tartan in warm rosy tones is a tribute to the early spring blossoms of the almond tree. Almonds are not actually classified as nuts, though we treat them as such, but "drupes" or "stone fruits" in the same family as other drupes such as: coffee, jujube, mango, olive, most palms (including açaí, date, sabal and oil palms), pistachio, white sapote, cashew, and also apricot, cherry, damson, peach, nectarine, and plum! In some cases, people eat both the skin and the sweet flesh inside, but discard the bitter and inedible pit and seed. In other cases, such as the almond and walnuts, people eat only the seed! Domesticated almonds appear as early as the Early Bronze Age (3000–2000 BC) and were even found in King Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt as food worthy to carry into the afterlife. And although almonds have been cultivated as far north as the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and even Iceland, currently California, Spain, and Australia are the prime suppliers of almonds. Almonds need hot weather and cool winters to grow and are reliant on wild and domesticated honey bees for crop pollination. In California, almond growers often rent bees to accomplish this! Beekeepers as far away as Florida transport billions of bees to the Central Valley in California to assist with almond growing season. 🌸 🐝 🌸
By designer Carol A.L. Martin, this tartan reflects the colors of a young almond bush.
Native to the Mediterranean climate region of the Middle East, it was spread by humans in ancient times along the shores of the Mediterranean into northern Africa and southern Europe, and more recently transported to other parts of the world, notably California, United States.
The pollination of California's almonds is the largest annual managed pollination event in the world, with close to one million hives (nearly half of all beehives in the USA) being trucked in February to the almond groves. Much of the pollination is managed by pollination brokers, who contract with migratory beekeepers from at least 49 states for the event.
Greek mythology tells a tragic love story about the creation of the almond tree. It begins when Phyllis, a beautiful daughter of a king of Thrace who fell in love with Demophon of Athens, the son of Theseus, as he traveled though Thrace on his return from the Trojan War.
After a period of happiness, Demophon, duty bound to Greece, returned home to help his father, leaving Phyllis behind and forgetting her. Phyllis waited hopelessly for many years for his return, and eventually, forlorn and heart-broken, died of a broken heart. Out of pity, the gods transformed Phyllis into the almond tree. When the errant and remorseful Demophon returned, he found the Phyllis tree, naked without leaves and flowers. Desperately, he hugged the tree, which suddenly flooded with flowers, showing that love cannot be defeated by death.
Click the picture for information about the sugared almond and its use in modern Greek rites of passage.