Favorite herbs for your 'medicine' cabinet? :)
flowersandthings
19 years ago
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Heathen1
19 years agothorspippi
19 years agoRelated Discussions
Best Herbal Medicine Book and website for medicinal herb seeds
Comments (4)Most all the plants in your list and all the ones *'d are native plants. Nurseries specializing in native plants and seeds will also have these for sale. Many native plants can be quite challenging to start from seed. Winter sowing is one of the best ways to try, but even then it can be difficult or take multiple years. I would suggest trying to start seed but also plan on buying young plants as well. It will provide a less frustrating experience for you. I've grown or are growing many of the plants you list. While some like the sun, many are woodland plants. You will want to check the growing conditions before planting all of them in the same garden. For example, butterflyweed (A. tuberosa) likes the soil lean and dry plus a lot of sun. While blue cohosh on the other hand will fry in the sun and likes the rich and moist woodland conditions. I would suggest planning a sun garden and a shade/woodland garden if you intend to grow all of these. For sources of info, try: Planting the Future: Saving Our Medicinal Herbs by Gladstar and others for growing plus usage info on some of the plants Growing and Propagating Wild Flowers by Phillips has growing info on quite a number of wild plants I like Native Plants of the Northeast by Leopold as a general reference on native plants of our region The Medicinal Herb Grower, Volume 1 by Richo Cech For herbal references on native plants of the area, I like Cherokee Plants by Chiltoskey, A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America by Foster & Duke, Native American Ethnobotany by Moerman, and A Handbook of Native American Herbs by Hutchens. You may also wish to look for herbal references of the practitioners of America's Eclectic and Thomsonian medicine traditions which may be of similar time period to Kline, who I am unfamiliar with. Some of these references can be found online. FataMorgana...See Moredoes anyone plant medicinal herbs too?
Comments (26)I highly recommend Horehound. It is a very bitter medicinal herb, generally recognized as useful in bronchial conditions. It likes a very well-drained position, and grows best for me in above-ground pots. It needs protection from faster growing plants--it is OK near things like Thyme and the smaller forms of Sage, but definitely not the Mints. Valerian is useful for nervous conditions, and has a fragrant inflorescence. It grows fairly tall but is an attractive plant. Comfrey is pretty close to being a rank weed similar to Mullein but I like to use it in places that would otherwise attract true weeds. It is a bully and will grow straight up at first, then let its stalks fall down, shading out anything in a 3 to 4 foot diameter. It can be used externally for injuries. Skullcap is also a rather attractive plant with interesting flower stalks...it has grown well for me and even reseeded itself lightly. Feverfew is good for migraine headaches, and is a small and rather attractive fern-like leaved little daisy-type plant that grows in attractive clumps. It works by doing something irreversible to smooth muscle, so should be used with caution. There are many medicinal herbs that treat similar conditions, so it's really more practical to try to discover the ones that do best in your area, for the conditions you want, and try to grow those. If you ask in the forums for your area, posters can tell you what has done well for them in that zone. Also, some really good medicinal herbs are either so large that you wouldn't want them to share a bed with the others, or so tiny that they really do better with the protection of their own pot....See MoreYour Favorite Tea Herbs...include recipes please!
Comments (25)Mint Teas: Makes a gallon - use only glass containers, plastic leaves a funny after taste. I use those glass jugs that apple juice/cider is often sold in. Citris Mint Tea (this is my Mom's favorite and I got the recipe from her): In a large pan (eventually needs to comfortably hold a gallon of liquid), bring 5 cups water to boil. Turn off heat and add a bunch of mint(I use 10-20 sprigs of mint, various kinds, and depending how strong I want it). Add 10 pinches or teaspoons of loose black tea (again depending how strong you want the "tea" flavor). Cover and let steep for 2 (two) hours. In a sauce pan, bring 5 cups water to boil, reduce heat and add 2 cups sugar (I only use one cup, because I don't like my tea too sweet), one cup lemon juice, and one frozen 12oz can orange juice concentrate. Keep well stirred until well disolved/mixed. Cover, turn off heat and let sit 2 hours. after the two hour wait: Add the juice mixture to the tea mix. Add 8 cups cold water and stir/mix well. Remove mint sprigs w/ tongs. Strain mixture using a very fine strainer into 1 gallon jug and top off with cold water if needed. Shake jug and refrigerate. Serve cold, over ice. You may want shake jug prior to each serving. Apple-Cinnamon Mint Tea (This one I came up with by making substitutions to the above recipe, as I prefer apples to oranges) In large pot (again eventually will hold nearly a gallon of liquid) bring 5 cups water to boil. Turn off Heat Add 10-20 sprigs mint add 10 pinches-teaspoons loose black tea (to taste) Add 2-3 cinnamon sticks. Don't use powdered cinnamon, it doesn't dissolve, found this out the hard way. Cover and let steep 90 minutes. In a saucepan bring the following to near boiling, but don't let it boil. Mainly just want it hot enough to get the sugar to dissolve: 4 cups unfiltered apple juice (has a cloudy white color to it) 2 cups cranberry juice (to replace the lemon tartness of the earlier recipe and complements apple better than lemon) 1/4 (1 quarter) cup brown sugar Stir until dissolved/mixed cover and turn off heat, let sit 90 mins. I originally used frozen apple juice concentrate, but it ended up too syrupy/sticky for some reason - using the actual juice turned out much better. After the 90 min wait: Add juice mix to tea pot, turn on heat to get it all steaming again and stir well. Then cover and remove from heat for another 30-40 minutes. Add 8 Cups cold water and stir. remove mint and strain the mix into 1 gallon jug, top off with cold water if needed. Cap and shake jug, refrigerate and serve cold over ice....See Morefavorite drought tolerant herbs
Comments (7)Now, I know drought means something different to different people, but it is hard for me to picture someone in Seattle knowing what a drought is! :o) You could grow a lot of the sages... of many types, some are more hydrophillic than others. Do you want edible or medicinal? Lavender is "drought tolerant". There are other colors of yarrow as well.... Wormwood is drought tolerant but gets rather large. Self heal would be drought tolerant for you, but it spreads... Then there is pennyroyal, which should do well there. If you want medicinal, I could list tons, but edible, you've got most that I'd think of....See Moreherbalbetty
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