"Two women who posted multiple times in this thread about the risks of comfrey are Judy B and daisyduckworth. How exactly do they fit into your conception of "a ruthless male quest for domination"? :)" They posted information without being insulting. It is the "insulting" part, and the demand that one poster, and one poster only, answer you which brings threads to a dead stop. "Threads get "trashed" when posters can't tolerate disagreement and give in to the temptation to start flaming others. We can do without that." Absolutely. So stop doing that. ... I plan to read your links, but the fact that one of them is an article called "Quackwatch" is not very congenial, either. Where is the link to your own previous posts? What you don't seem to get is that, even if someone were a so-called "quack," that does not necessarily make them an evil person or someone not worthy of courtesy. I wish you would take seriously my input to you in the other thread. It was well meant, and I doubt that in your personal life anyone will ever tell you those things. People as argumentative as you appear to be tend not to get much feedback; other people just don't bother. The skills I mentioned are real skills that can be taught, and most people of wealth use them regularly. They are part of the skills set that is necessary to move up in life for most people, despite the present-day emphasis on getting ahead by being obnoxious. Maybe under the system of humors you would be classified as "choloric", but you would have to ask Charles what herbs were applicable for the condition. This is not an issue of agreement or disagreement with your individual herbal points. You have a full right to make your points, as does EVERYONE on here, without harassment or insult. What you don't seem to appreciate is that some of the people you attack (to me, it is attacking) probably know a lot more about herbs than you do and just enjoy sharing their insights. You don't have to agree with them and you can make all the conflicting posts you want, but they don't owe you any "proofs", and they certainly do not need to be insulted. Find your own documentation for or against and simply present it, as does everyone else on here. It seems to me that there are other viewpoints in here that you simply will not tolerate. In fact, it appears to me that you want to do away with traditional, empirically based herbalism altogether. You seem to want to turn herbalism into a laboratory science which excludes all field knowledge. If you are for the medical lab approach exclusively, you really may not belong here; this is a GARDENING website. Although information on remedies, etc. is shared, it is NOT a "medical website", it is a cultural one in which arcane knowledge regarding ancient and modern herbal practices are shared by, mostly, gardeners. There is a whole area of gardening devoted to herbal gardening, in part an effort to save cultural knowledge that has been swept aside by modern practices. People should not really be coming to this site in search of "cures" for specific conditions, either--they should be going either to medical sites or the sites of accomplished herbalists, or to their own physicians. What should be happening on here is information regarding how to grow medicinal herbs, and what those herbs may be capable of. To me, the focus should be on the individual herbs, not medical conditions. I am uncomfortable posting information regarding growing medicinal herbs on the culinary herbs forum. Although I understand to a certain extent the reasons for calling medicinal herbs food, because they really are--in a foraging society, everyone would have tried some of them--I feel it is unfortunate that the modern scientific establishment has such a monopoly that it is necessary to do so to protect a whole body of traditional knowledge from ruthless extermination. You acknowledge that you are here because you want to drive herbalism forward under the medical model, and you have indicated by your actions that you will tolerate nothing else. You will not tolerate any other point of view, because YOU want to push forth YOUR OWN viewpoint of herbalism. In actuality, you are "selling" something, too--the field that you want to work in, as you want to work in it. If you eliminate from the workplace competition others that are more skilled than you in herbology itself, rather than lab science, you have made a rather large, selfish win--just like those who make money from selling herbs. There is no moral superiority in service to a great cause there; therefore, there is no excuse for a lack of courtesy. These issues are so central to where herbalism is in modern times that I do not feel that addressing them constitutes "flaming". In fact, I doubt that few people who exist just to "flame" others are on this site. Most people here are gardeners who like to share gardening information--which happens to include knowledge about herbal gardens and various cultural practices around those. It's really irrelevent to the historian if the herbs worked for what they were grown for, or not--the interest is historical, and many of us are interested in that information. Those who wish to have gardens of herbs that can be safely used to assist in various conditions may be more interested in the modern scientific viewpoint regarding specific herbs, but not all of us really care, since we would be unlikely to actually use many of the herbs we grow in any case. I grow some herbs because I know that bees like their nectar, and am hoping that may give the bee population a little boost, for example. Not everything about herb gardens is just about humans. I greatly enjoy the insect activity they encourage, for example. When I was doing research on the internet to find out more about the elderberry, I was delighted to find a monograph detailing all of the insect species attracted by the various forms.

I purchased a three-in-one plum tree from Raintree last year. It has grown nicely and was well labelled. I weighted down the branches with rope and a stone to make the tree more open centered. Looks like it may be budded for fruit next year. I transferred some chip buds ( my first attempt at chip budding) to other plums that I have, so we'll see next spring if that was successful. I have been grafting scions onto existing apple and pear trees for a few years now. My first reaction when these grafts fruited was that flavor must be affected and in decline when a graft. (Mollie's Delicious on Jonathan had no taste; Vista Bella on same tree was o.k.) However, this year has changed that --Honeycrisp is one of four grafts on Hawkeye Delicious and is wonderful. The Grimes Golden on that tree is also great, and expecting great things from Florina in a few weeks. One thing I think I've learned is to not let the tree overbear.

party_music50: Recipe sounds good! I have been SO disappointed though when the berries this year from the first year after planting were so 'blah!" No flavor or tartness at all... I am SO upset! My memory it seems they were rather tart when we kids ate them. Are your elderberries tart or have any real flavor at all? Someone said the first crop after planting will be that way but it is a mystery to me...! If the same next year, those bushes will be dug out; the bushes grew from the 18 in. twigs planted last spring to bushes over 8 feet tall this year & full of blooms & tasteless berries.... no way would they ever be used in a pie... no flavor at ALL!! Birds even left them alone! Do you have a special/easy way to glean the berries from the clusters ? I also have ground cherries which come up from seed all over every year & I love to use in pies but they are a bit on the bland side also so I use a bit of lemon juice in the pies also... no sugar needed! Now those are REALLY labor intensive to pick up the individual husks from the ground, take each berry from the husk, etc.!! Have you used them also? I live at 5200 ft. in a high desert area; temps get below freezing most winters, summers in the 90's & low rainfall (except this year!!)

I was mad that my friend mowed a nice clump of Tall Bellflower, but now the deer are eating them down to the ground. And my Beebalm. Thank goidness they have ignored the Trillium. My native Sweet Flag had it's 1st flower. The Passiflora lutea hasn't emerged yet. Leatherwood, Jack in the Pulpit, and Virginia Creeper Tall Meadow Rue. About 7 ft. Virginia Snakeroot and Hairy Wood Mint. Special guest appearance by Hog Peanut and Common Blue Violet. Giant Solomon's Seal, Polygonatum biflorum var commutatum. Crested Iris, Maianthemum stellatum, Lilium michiganense, Lilium philidelphicum, Sanguinaria canadensis. At what stage is your Bloodroot in northern Minnesota, Dandy? I found a nursery selling Lonicera canadensis. Unfortunately I would have to pick them up, and the nursery in in the upper peninsula of Michigan.