A cold snap was known as blackthorn winter because frost suddenly arrived after the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) had blossomed. One Garlic Mustard plant, from a wildflower sale at the Ecology Centre, was planted in the Wildlife Garden a few years ago. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Birds, animals, insects and children appear throughout. Thank you for pointing that out. Or is it something unique that your life is missing?Spellcasting is an art that must NOT be taken carelessly. Birdsfoot Trefoils YELLOW flowers bloom from June to September over a mat of small, dark green leaves. It was unwelcome in the cornfields, where its tough stems blunted farmers scythes, earning it the name Hurt-sickle. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Charlotte Voake gives one of its names as Hedge-Strangler. video=http://highburywildlifegarden.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/v030.flv Plant-Lore Collecting the folklore and uses of plants The many offspring of our first Hedge Woundwort, which came from an Ecology Centre wildflower sale, reappear each spring. Change). One of its folknames is Kiss Me Quick. Coconut Oil - 112.5 grams (25%) This is an extract from Kew Royal Botanic Gardens new book The Witches Garden: Plants in Folklore, Magic and Traditional Medicine by Sandra Lawrence, published by Welbeck. European herbalists have always regarded it primarily as a wound herb. Allspice is also listed as a rubefacient, which means that it increases circulation to the skin, so it can be used in treating acne and cold limbs. It is not easy to source plants or seeds of Alkanna tinctoria, so we used dried dyestuff from France. In days gone by, however, knowing what each time of the year would bring was a matter of life or death. The female Orange Tip tastes the plant with her feet, then lays a single egg. Introduced to the UK before the Iron Age, its petals were churned into butter and added to cheese to intensify the yellow colour. Allspice contains tannins, which provide a mild anesthetic making it useful for the treatment of arthritis and sore muscles either in a soak or apoultice. This wild geranium is so prolific in the area, it could easily bear the title of The Highbury Herb. Green Magic - Flowers, Plants and Herbs in Lore and Legend, Lesley Gordon, p.162. This is a stout bristly plant, with deep green, ovate leaves, and long-stalked axillary, crowded clusters of rather large flowers, which are of an intense azure blue and have a short tube to the corolla. The cotton thistle (Onopordum acanthium), which Culpeper notes may hurt the finger but help the body, was thought to be particularly good for cricks in the neck. I have spent a large part of my day, hunting down sources about cannibalism in Caribbean Island Natives that did NOT come from European sources. Allspice comes from a tree in the myrtle family that grows in Central and South America. It spreads by seed like borage but sticks around like comfrey. But the wildness isn't just displayed in the existence of this plant that pops up persistently in all these unnoticed spaces. Alkanet flowers in salad [Peckham, London, July 2012].Image: naturalized, Holy Ghost Cemetery, Basingstoke, Hampshire; May 2015. How to Grow Borage in Your Garden Stick with it! Green Alkanet, a perennial wildflower, has been in this country since at least 1700. Wikipedia says the root of Wild Carrot contains much sugar. Cultivated for over 2,000 years, tea brewed from its leaves is therapeutic, soothing away melancholy and revivingthe tired brain. This, our current clover patch, grows in a ceramic pot. In the past, Alkanet root was used to improve the appearance of low quality wines and ports, and to give an . 5. Set the cup down into a pan containing a few inches of water. This plant is a member of the forget-me-not family ( Boraginaceae ), and is a pretty common plant found in the southern parts of England, but becomes less common as you move up into the midlands and into the north. For information and inspiration: see Marc Carltons website http://www.foxleas.com/PDF/Gardening%20for%Bumblebees07.pdf (c) 2007 The Pollinator Garden http://ww.buglife.org/uk/Resources/Buglife/Suggested flowers for bumblebees.pdf (includes generally not much good for bumblebees). It spreads by seed like borage but sticks around like comfrey. But however, where I am may be lost.". Also known as Bishopswort, Betonys properties are both medicinal and magical. Most of the Borage family of plants will make nutritious compost but with Green Alkanet I suspect that to actually compost it would be helping to spread it because it sets seed continually. green alkanet P. sempervirens is a coarse, bristly, tap-rooted perennial with a basal rosette of pointed, oval leaves up to 40cm long. The name "alkanet" is also used for dyer's bugloss (Alkanna tinctoria) and common bugloss (Anchusa officinalis). It is an evergreen that grows to about 30 feet (9 meters) tall and its glossy, aromatic green leaves reach about 6 inches in length. Flowers appear in June, July, and August, and the berries appear shortly after that. Bowling Green's first Mardi Gras parade, organized by the Kiwanis Club of Bowling Green, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Saturday in downtown Bowling Green. Green alkanet blooms in spring and early summer. I am a little disturbed by the insert about the Arawak using Allspice to cure the meat of their fallen enemies. Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing ..I'll bookmark your site and take the feeds also?I am satisfied to seek out a lot of helpful info right here in the post, we'd like work out more techniques on this regard, thank you for sharing. Green Magic Flowers, Plants & Herbs in Lore & Legend, Lesley Gordon. Blessed be. It grows on old walls, in dry rocky places, between paving stones. Its YELLOW flowers proved unattractive to insects, and it appears that only one insect, an aphid, lives ON it. . Remove from heat and add 12 drops of peppermint essential oil. Green Alkanet is common and widespread in the southern part of the UK, less so in the midlands and north, and only found in the east and south of Ireland close to the coast. An alcoholic cordial, made from lovage, sugar and brandy, was used to reduce stomach upsets. Round up is very effective but I don't like to use it. Once replanted, Vipers Bugloss proved a magnet for bees. Is it finding new love or making the existing one healthier than ever? However he say he uses the flowers, but did not say what for. Green alkanet (Alkanna tinctoria) flowers in the summer, but Culpeper points out that its long taproot, used for dye and numerous ointments, is at its best before the herb shoots up a stalk. You can indeed make a tea off it.The plant has various purposes.I think it depends on the country you are in as the search engines differ from country to country.You can find more about the Green Alkanet in medical books.here is also a nuce link with little information in it. Botanical painting by J.N.Fitch, Horwoods British Wildflowers in their Favourite Haunts. We find that works well on bindweed and dandelions. (LogOut/ While it is possible that they could have participated in cannibalism, I think context is really important. Allspice comes from a tree in the myrtle family that grows in Central and South America. The bright yellow flowers of the common gorse, with their light, coconut fragrance, meant kissing was back in season. Where does it grow? Wise women, apothecaries, witches, herbalists: whatever you call them, those who cultivate plants for their fabled mystical and healing properties have existed for thousands of years. Every one of them worth growing if you have the space and can deal with the prickles. Good Friday was particularly auspicious because the devil was powerless. The flowers and young leaves are best as the mature leaves have rather a rough hairy nature. I want you to feel the lovage give it a small corner of your garden, find it a place in your kitchen, and it might find a place in your heart Recipes include Lovage, Lettuce, Pea and Cucumber Soup, and Courgette and Lovage Pasta. It is also very popular in English cooking and is often added to stews and sauces and used in pickling vegetables. Some men objected only eight years earlier, male students at Cambridge had hanged a woman riding a bicycle, in effigy, to protest the admission of women to the college. It is a time for cleansing, both physically and spiritually. Though Alkanet imparts a fine deep red colour to oily substances and to spirit of wine, it tinges water with a dull brownish hue. In The Secret Life of Plants, David Attenborough describes how the flowers turn to the wall on which they grow to disperse their seeds. The berries can also be added to sachets for attracting the same. You can dig up those that are a year or so old with a trowel but may need to use weed . They named it Aspirin (acetyl + spiraea ulmaria) after the plants earlier botanical name, Spiraea ulmaria. It has brilliant blue flowers, and retains its green leaves through the winter. The species is hermaphrodite (has both male and female organs) and is pollinated by Insects. The plant has difficulty growing in acidic soil (it is calcicolous). . The shrub Nerium oleander is a drought-tolerant Mediterranean bush with narrow, dark-green leaves and trusses of pink or red flowers. This was the time to hunker down at home, using herbs in their various preserved forms to liven food and treat the diseases of the cold winter. I'm glad to be always learning though. The problem Bright blue forget-me-not type flowers with white centre, 8-10mm (in), open from pink buds and are borne April to June. Teasel and 4. Allow the flower to remain for the bees. Pollinators help it set seed readily. Native American smudging is a smoke bath to cleanse the body and physical spaces. There are 40 species, found primarily in the Mediterranean area, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. About 8 to 10 tons were annually imported from France and Germany. As a producer of natural beauty products I mainly use plant extracts to infuse colour. A religious herb of the Celts, also native to temperate Europe and Algeria, and known to the ancient Egyptians Grown in physic gardens of apothecaries and monasteries for medicinal purposes as well as churchyards to foil evil spirits who might be hanging around. For a time of year bursting with green promise, late spring and early summer were, surprisingly, known as the hungry gap: a time when stored supplies had dwindled and new plantings were not yet ready, but eagerly awaited.Midsummer is still considered by many to be the most powerful time of the year, marking the beginning of three months of plenty, but there is a little confusion as to what midsummer means. He said that when turned into a vinegar, it helps treat leprosy, yellow jaundice, spleen and gravel in the kidneys, and when drunk as a wine relieved back pain, strengthened the back and was as gallant a remedy to drive out smallpox and measles as any is. He says some people cook the leaves but he does not recommend it. Now a resident UK wildflower, this dainty plant from southern Europe was brought to the Chelsea Physic Garden over 300 years ago. Farmers have been bringing in their crops since Lammas (1 August) but it is traditionally a busy time in the still-room, too, foraging hedgerows for herbs, berries, fruits and fungi, preserving them in alcohol, syrups and drying them. Herbs of the spring were many and plentiful. P. sempervirens is common throughout England and most of Wales but records diminish as you go north. There must be male and female tress for cross-pollination. Has been in this country since at least 1700 and Herbs in Lore and Legend, Lesley,... Well on bindweed and dandelions says the root of wild Carrot contains much sugar is! Chelsea Physic Garden over 300 years ago tree in the myrtle family that grows in Central and South.. In a ceramic pot or death borage in your Garden Stick with!! Says the root of wild Carrot contains much sugar from lovage, sugar and brandy, was planted in Wildlife... September over a mat of small, dark green leaves alcoholic cordial, made from lovage, sugar brandy... Life is missing? 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