The Green Report
(Click for images of plants mentioned)
I have some lovely plants to share with you. You probably won't find most of these beauties growing wild where you live, but they are generally easy to grow. Beware! The flowers we choose for our gardens are often poisonous! Some of these garden plants are medicinal and a few are edible, but they are in my garden primarily for their sweet scents and their glorious colors.
Lungwort (Pulmonaria species)
This member of the Borage family is related to comfrey and was formerly used in much the same way, especially, as the name indicates, to resolve lung problems. Poisonous alkaloids are found in the roots, leaves, and flowers of all members of this family. Hybrids of comfrey have been created to avoid this problem. (See plant 16 in this list.)
Frittilary (Fritillaria meleagris) AKA Checkered Lily
This was my favorite flower as a child. I walked to my grade school in Dallas, and a garden with this pressed up against the fence was on my way. Perhaps it was here that I first felt the fairies and allowed them to guide my life into green blessings.
Bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis)
This stunning and unusual flower is found wild in shady hollows and forests in Japan and Siberia, making it one hardy beauty in Northern gardens. The wild relatives in my neck of the woods are called Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) and Squirrel-corn (Dicentra canadensis). They are all part of the poppy family, which is perhaps why I have never been tempted to even sample one of the flowers.
Wild yam shoot (Discorea villosa)
The root of the wild yam is a valuable source of drugs and widely used in herbal medicine as well. It contains precursors to hormones, including progesterone, but does not contain actual hormones. Whether these precursors are active in the human body is a subject of much debate. United Plant Savers gave me this root, and, to my delight, it has produced a vine that is hardy and quite interesting. I will continue to bring pictures of it to you as it grows.
Lilac (Syringa vulgaris)
I live in lilac country. The gardeners around me love forsythia and lilacs. As the last of the yellow forsythia flowers fall, the lilacs burst into scented bloom. My earliest memory is of this. When I asked my mother about it, she was shocked. A large lilac bloomed under the window of the room where I slept for one month, when I was thirteen months old!
Azalea (Rhododendron species)
Hundreds of wild rhododendrons and azaleas grow wild in North America, Europe, and Asia. The entire plant, including the flowers and the nectar from the flowers, is poisonous. Bees foraging on these plants are said to get drunk. Honey made from the nectar is said to carry the poisonous compounds.
Tulips (Tulipa greigii)
Tulips (Tulipa hybrid)
These edible members of the lily family (which contains some very poisonous groups, like daffodils), bring vivid color to my garden and are a stunning addition to salads. I wait until the tulip petals are drooping before harvesting them to scatter atop my daily wild greens. The darker colored ones are an extra anti-oxidant boost and helpful to the immune system as well.These edible members of the lily family (which contains some very poisonous groups, like daffodils), bring vivid color to my garden and are a stunning addition to salads. I wait until the tulip petals are drooping before harvesting them to scatter atop my daily wild greens. The darker colored ones are an extra anti-oxidant boost and helpful to the immune system as well.
Phlox (Phlox pilosa)
"Phlox" means flame, in honor of the many colors this plant flowers in. From matting, creeping plants, to waist-high stalks, there is a phlox for every garden. They require virtually no care once planted, and will continue to give delight for decades. I have never eaten phlox flowers. Have you?
Queen of the night (Hesperis matronalis) AKA Dame's rocket
This wildflower is often confused with phlox, for it comes in the same color range and blooms at the same time as the spring blooming phlox. But, as a member of the cabbage/mustard family, Queen of the night has four petals, while phlox has five. I especially enjoy the flowers in my salads. The bigger thrill, however, is to sit by a group of these plants at dusk when they exude a marvelously sweet scent that calls to their pollinator: the hummingbird moth, a moth fully as big as its namesake. Enjoy!
Common blue violet (Viola papilionacea)
Sweet white violet (Viola blanda)
Freckled violet (Viola species)
Broad leafed wood violet (Viola latiuscula)
Violets seem to bloom forever where I live. Not only do the individual plants bloom for a long time, there are so many varieties that one picks up as another is winding down. All of the violets pictured are wildflowers, which I have encouraged in my gardens. I've never had to plant them.
The freckled one (and there is only one!) is probably a natural hybrid. The colored flowers of the violets are not reproductive, so we may harvest as many as we like without harm to their continuation in our woods, fields, and gardens. (The reproductive flowers are green and hidden beneath the leaves and come later in the season.)
There are so many ways to use violets and violet flowers. There is no finer early summer breakfast than a piece of home-baked whole wheat bread spread with butter and piled high with fresh violets. I use violet honey to soften the skin and ease away wrinkles. Of course, they bring antioxidants and sighs of delight to our salads.
Violet leaves are also tasty in salads; they provide lavish amounts of vitamins A and C. Violet leaf infusion is a renowned cancer cure; before the price got steep, it was one of my regular infusion herbs. Want more, more, more on violet? Recipes, stories, and medicinal info on violet are all to be found in my green book: Healing Wise.
Rhubarb on top - Comfrey on bottom
Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) AKA Pie plant
The petioles (leaf stalks) of garden rhubarb are the only part free enough of poisons to be food. Rhubarb root is a powerful cathartic laxative that was an absolute necessity on long ocean voyages of discovery and whaling. Imagine a diet of salted meat and dried beans, where water is strictly rationed, to get an idea of the value of an explosive gut opener. Approach the roots with extreme caution; or do what many herbalists do, and rely on its less aggressive sister, yellow dock, when things need to be moved in the gut.
Comfrey (Symphytum uplandica x)
Comfrey the comforting is one of the most important healing plants in the world. It strengthens and increases the flexibility of bones (AKA Knit bone), ligaments, tendons, skin, and mucus surfaces, including respiratory, digestive, and reproductive tissues. It also contains proteins used to create short-term memory. I will re-picture comfrey for you when it is flowering and ready to harvest. I have used comfrey leaf infusion as a regular part of my diet for nearly 30 years with no problems. (My liver is very healthy, thank you very much.)
Wild Salad with Wild Flowers
You will need a sharp pair of plant scissors and a few baskets. For safety sake, I harvest each plant into a different container. Keep the chickweed stalks parallel as you cut them and place them in your basket that way, making them much easier to cut into uniform pieces.
- Largest basket (about 50% of salad): chickweed leaves, flowers, and stalks
- Large basket (about 25% of salad): first year garlic mustard leaves
- Medium basket (about 5% of salad): mild leaves, your choice, mallow or five-finger ivy (Virginia creeper)
- Smaller baskets (total of 20% of salad): aromatic, strong-tasting plants like lemon balm, wild oregano, bergamot, cronewort, mint, catnip, and thyme
- Smallest basket: Mixed flowers. Individual blossoms of Queen of the Night, violets, periwinkle, and wild geranium. Entire flower heads of garlic mustard and barbara's cress.
Preparation: Cut chickweed into small (1/2 inch) pieces; tear garlic mustard, mallow, and five-finer ivy into bite-sized pieces; finely mince aromatic plants. Combine in a bowl. Add a splash of tamari, a good pour of herbal vinegar, and plenty of extra virgin olive oil (at least one tablespoonful per serving of salad). Toss, artfully arrange flowers or simply toss them on the salad and serve.
Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081
Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ashtreepublishing.com
For permission to reprint this article, contact us at: susunweed {at} herbshealing.com
Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine. Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging and often profoundly provocative.
Susun is one of America's best-known authorities on herbal medicine and natural approaches to women's health. Her four best-selling books are recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and cherished by millions of women around the world.
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