UW Medicinal Herb Garden Blog

Most people who pass through the Medicinal Herb Garden do not make it across the street (Stevens Way) to the garden’s fruit forest. There’s no sign and it is surrounded by hedges and tall trees.

Center of fruit forest from the north  (minus two large goumi bushes that have a new home at the Beacon Food Forest)

The plants have gradually filled in and started bearing fruit since I first cleared brush and began planting in 2000. Luckily, representatives of most of the plants in the fruit forest can be grown, here and there, on the outer borders of the Medicinal Herb Garden across the street, because the fruit forest will face the bulldozer in the coming months, to make room for a new building. The university is constantly adding new buildings and replacing outdated buildings. We all accept and understand this truth around here, yet there’s no avoiding a period of mourning when a place you love is about to disappear.

grapes (Vitis vinifera)

Sichuan pepper (Zanthoxylum simulans)

woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca)

Years ago I read that there is now a name, coined by Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht, for this type of mourning. It’s called solastalgia.

Though it is probably a more fitting term for the experiences of the people of southern Appalachia, facing the horrors of mountaintop mining, or the citizens of Kiribati or Tuvalu, about to be displaced from their paridisiacal island homes by rising sea levels, solastalgia describes a psychic state of dislocation and disorientation caused by physical dispossession. We modern Americans have created a wasteland of placeless places, stamped out of a planner’s bag of templates, but a real sense of place is an integral part of our identity as humans. So, when a favorite space we are connected to disappears, even a relatively small oasis like the fruit forest, feeling a bit of sadness is inevitable. The trick to maintain sanity, or at least avoid being overwhelmed by despair, is to move forward and create new oases. There is always a marginal place that can be transformed. Keep your eyes on the borders of the Medicinal Herb Garden for these coming transformations.

sassafras (Sassafras albidum)

Italian prune plums (Prunus domestica)

black mulberry (Morus nigra)

Many of the smaller shrubs have already been relocated in the Medicinal Herb Garden. But the fruit forest space has a combination of solitude, quiet, shade in the lower part and sun in the upper, circular design, blueberries (Vaccinium spp.), paw paws (Asimina triloba), plums (Prunus spp.), raspberries (Rubus idaeus), honeyberries (Lonicera caerulea), pomegranates (Punica granatum), goumis (Eleagnus multiflora), Nanking cherries (Prunus tomentosa), Sichuan pepper bushes (Zanthoxylum simulans), black currants (Ribes nigrum), mulberries (Morus nigra), giant black walnut tree (Juglans nigra), grapes (Vitis vinifera), hardy kiwis (Actinidia arguta), sassafras (Sassafras albidum),  honeybee (Apis mellifica) hives and wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca). That combination will be hard to reproduce.

black currant (Ribes nigrum)

raspberry (Rubus idaeus)

lemon verbena (Aloysia triphylla) At the north entrance/exit of the fruit forest, you rub past two lemon verbena shrubs, catching just a hint of their refreshing scent on your clothes as you come and go.

Still, there is new inspiration to be drawn from this loss. The west side of the Chemistry Building’s south lawn has some excellent features. I’ve already started expanding into it and hope to add more plants during the dormant season. The same goes for the lawn between Benson Hall and Cascara Circle. Since January, I’ve planted blueberries , honeyberries, goumis, paw paws , prune plums, cherry prinsepia (Prinsepia sinensis), Chilean myrtle (Luma apiculata) and woodland strawberries. More to come.

New fruit forest border, northwest of Cascara Circle

New fruit forest border, west of Cascara Circle

Fruit forest, we’ll miss you, but your spirit will live on.

who records it all

the long list of lost places

memory hold fast

See you in the garden.

The last few days I’ve found myself often by the globe thistle, and it’s no accident. Globe thistle flowers smell like spiced jelly beans taste. Or something like that. It’s difficult not to linger and touch my nose to their richly scented, globe-shaped flower heads.  And when I do, my nose is practically touching honeybees. If I could buy pure, spicy, globe thistle honey, I would. Bees seem to be in a trance once they’ve landed on the globes. I’ve never seen them stay so long on any other flowers. Hurry if you want to smell the globe thistles and observe lingering bees up close. The flowers don’t last long.

Echinops persicus (globe thistle) section B

Long live globe thistle!

Dalea purpurea (purple prairie clover) section D

Dalea candida (white prairie clover) section C

Silphium integrifolium (rosinweed) section E

Saururus cernuus (lizard’s tail) section B

Althaea officinalis (marshmallow) section A

Dipsacus asper (xu-duan) section B

Layia platyglossa ( coastal tidytips) section A

Eupatorium aromaticum (boneset) section B

Persicaria lapathifolia (curlytop knotweed) section B

Echinocystis lobata (wild cucumber) section A

Eurybia macrophylla (bigleaf aster) section E

Lathyrus tuberosus (tuberous sweetpea) section A

Boisduvalia densiflora (boisduvalia) section A

Pontedaria cordata (pickerel weed, wampee) Cascara Circle

Belamcanda chinensis (leopard flower, she gan) section B

nectar like spiced wine

these bees drunk on globe thistle

make it home safely

See you in the garden.

Sometimes it’s best to stand aside and let the plants do the talking. We’re in the middle of a heat wave in Seattle and I’m feeling lazy. This day calls out for iced tea and a swim in the lake. For those of you far away, here are a few very recent images from the Medicinal Herb Garden. If you’re local, it’s a good day for a walk in the garden. There are plenty of shady spots for a nap and there’s so much flowering all around. Enjoy.

Gentiana affinis (pleated gentian) Cascara Circle

Monardell odoratissima (mountain monardella) section D

Chenopodium foliosum (leafy goosefoot) section B

Sideritis scardica (mountain tea) section B

Punica granatum (pomegranate, shi liu pi) border areas

Glycyrrhiza lepidota (wild licorice) section B

Platycodon grandiflorus (balloonflower, jie geng) section B and border areas

Ageratina occidentalis (western snakeroot) section B

Scutellaria baicalensis (Baikal skullcap, huang qin) section B

Verbascum olympicum (Greek mullein) section F

Helianthus nuttallii (Nuttall’s sunflower) section A

Veronicastrum virginicum (culver’s root) section F

Amorpha canescens (leadplant) section D

Aralia californica (western spikenard, elk clover) section E

Cichorium intybus (chicory) section D

Chamaemelum nobile (chamomile) section C

Aster linosyris (goldilocks aster) section C

Inula helenium (elecampane, xuan fu hua) section B

Angelica dahurica (bai zhi) section B

Anemone virginiana (thimbleweed) section D

Geranium viscosissimum (sticky geranium) section D

Galium boreale (northern bedstraw) section F

Stachys officinalis (wood betony) section F

Ononis spinosa (restharrow) section A

Berlandiera lyrata (chocolate flower) section C

Verbena macdougallii (Macdougal verbena) section C

Nasa triphylla (whorled Chilean nettle) section A

Lepidium montanum (mesa pepperwort) section D

Asclepias incarnata (swamp milkweed) section D

Tagetes lucida (Mexican tarragon) section C

Aster foliaceus (leafy-bract aster) section A

Opopanax chironium (opopanax) section A

Oenothera speciosa ( showy evening primrose) xeriscape bed and section D

Pelargonium capitatum (rose geranium) section A

Salvia patens (gentian sage) garden borders

Asclepias fascicularis (Mexican milkweed) xeriscape bed

this is no mirage

through shimmering waves of heat

a swaying milkweed

See you in the garden.

This summer has gotten off to a warm start. I forgot my camera today but here are some of last week’s shots.

Mimulus cardinalis (scarlet monkeyflower) section C

According to Daniel Moerman, in his encyclopedic Native American Ethnobotany (Timber Press, 1998), the Karok people, native to a region that is now in northern California and southern Oregon, are reported to have used an infusion of scarlet monkeyflower as a wash for newborn babies.

Celosia cristata (cockscomb, ji guan hua) section E

It’s no mystery how Celosia cristata got the common name cockscomb. The flowers look like they should be on top of a rooster’s head. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the flowers are used to cool the blood and control bleeding.

Cimicifuga racemosa (black cohosh) section D

Black cohosh root is used to treat symptoms of menopause, as an alternative to hormone therapy. It’s also used to treat menstrual cramps and was widely and variously used by native peoples of eastern North America. An Asian species, C. foetida, is used in TCM. We have two related species, C. elata and C. laciniata, in Washington state. They are not as widespread as C. racemosa and perhaps that explains why neither is mentioned in Moerman’s Native American Ethnobotany.

Larrea tridentata (creosote bush) xeriscape bed

I don’t remember the creosote bush flowering before but I think I’m noticing more flowers now that I carry a camera around.

Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed, pleurisy root) section C and xeriscape bed

It gets one of its common names, pleurisy root, because it has been used to treat pleurisy, which is inflammation of the inner lining of the chest and lungs. It gets its other common name, butterfly weed, because butterflies love its nectar. It’s drought tolerant and beautiful when flowering, a good addition to your xeriscape bed.

Pelargonium sidoides (umckaloaba) section D

Native to South Africa, umckaloaba has traditionally been used to treat acute bronchitis and other respiratory conditions.  As is often the case, the effectiveness of a traditional remedy has been demonstrated in clinical trials:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12807337

http://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/herb/pelargonium-sidoides

The flowers are dark purple, almost black, and their scent is intoxicating. I lift the plants in late autumn, pot them up and keep them in a place where they are cold but not freezing, then I replant outside in spring.

Houttuynia cordata (yu xing cao) section F

Foliage of yu xing cao smells like raw fish and is used as food and medicine from China to Japan and India. I keep it contained with a metal barrier in the shade with only a moderate  amount of water and it still threatens to escape. Be careful planting it in your garden.

Papaver somniferum (breadseed poppy, opium poppy) garden borders

This variety is called Danish flag. If the flag of Denmark really looked like that, I’d consider defecting(though it’s doubtful they would accept me). I love this poppy, not just because it is beautiful, but because it produces a lot of seeds. The breadseed poppy that produces the seeds for your bagels and pastries and breads is also the opium poppy that produces the important though addictive pain reliever, morphine, and the street drug, heroin.

Nigella sativa (black seed) section A

Less-adorned cousin of Nigella damascena (love in a mist), black seed is an easy annual to grow and its seeds are sold as a food and a medicine. Check out the profile from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center:

http://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/herb/nigella-sativa

Gentiana tibetica (qin jiao) section E

Used in traditional Tibetan and Chinese medicine, qin jiao is an easy plant to grow. We all might consider consuming more bitter food/medicine; and gentian is bitter. I’ll leave you with a short article from Dr. Andrew Weil:

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA401077/Is-Bitter-Better.html

a little bitter

helps gallbladder and liver

learn to like the taste

See you in the garden.

A couple of weeks ago, a group of 4-H students from north of Seattle came to visit the Medicinal Herb Garden and the nearby honeybees maintained by Evan Sugden and his students.  One of their teachers spoke to me briefly about the difficulty of raising bees in the 21st century. There is no escape from environmental toxins, even if your role in life consists of flying around from flower to flower, sipping nectar and gathering pollen.

Bees!

Luckily, the city of Spokane, Washington, over on the sunny side of the state, has just banned the use of neonicotinoid pesticides on city property. They are the second city in the country to enact such a ban, after Eugene, Oregon. Thank you, Eugene, for getting the ball rolling and thank you, Spokane, for setting an example for the city of Seattle. And thank you to the Seattle City Council for the ban on neonicotinoids on Seattle city property. Oh, wait a minute, that hasn’t happened yet. But it will happen soon, very soon if enough people in Seattle contact Mike O’Brien, Seattle City Council Chair of the Planning, Land Use and Sustainability Committee. The best way to contact Councilmember O’Brien is through his Legislative Aide, Jasmine Marwaha:

Jasmine.Marwaha@seattle.gov

But there’s more we can do. We can petition stores and their corporate owners to stop selling plants that are treated with neonicotinoids to poison “pest” insects. Ironically, many of these plants are marketed as “bee-friendly” because they have flowers that attract bees, but the flowers are toxic and because honeybees live in colonies, they bring the poison back to the hive. What a nightmare scenario this is.

Here’s some good information and a petition from the environmental protection organizaton, Beyond Pesticides:

http://action.beyondpesticides.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15118

Their invisibility is what makes most environmental toxins so insidious and scary. If enlightened American cities keep banning neonicotinoids, maybe the government of the USA will follow the lead of the European Union, which recently took the preliminary step of banning neonicotinoids across the continent for two years.

As the radiation from Fukushima washes ashore in the state of Washington, it is hard to ignore that everything is connected in a giant web of life. Maybe it’s time to start applying the precautionary principle

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precautionary_principle )

when corporations propose the introduction of toxic substances into the environment. Just because a poison is sprayed in someone’s back yard, golf course or farm, it doesn’t mean it won’t end up radiating into the wider environment, one way or another.

Those who respectfully work the land know that the highest goal is to leave things as good or better than we found them. For all our endeavors, that is an ideal to think about as we move carefully into the 21st century. We all live in one and the same ecosystem.

our poisoned jetsam

  moving closely in our wake

to where we are now

See you in the garden.

The scent from the flowering Japanese privet  (Ligustrum japonicum) in section D, wafting through the warm, humid air, is the scent of early summer in the city. Ah, summer. We do not, in my opinion, get enough summer in Seattle, but it’s here now and it sure feels good.

Here are some recent bloomers.

Morina longifolia (whorlflower) section A

From the Himalayas, the whorlflower is used in Tibetan and Chinese medicine. It is a striking plant when flowering but holds its own all year as an evergreen, herbaceous perennial.

Liatris spicata (blazing star) section C

Blazing star, native to eastern North America is a good choice for a sunny meadow garden.

Psoralidium tenuiflorum (slimflower scurfpea) section C

This midwesterner blends well with the Liatris, Echinacea and Eryngium neighbors in its section C garden bed. The roots have been used by Native Americans to treat lung conditions and headaches.

Jasminum officinale var. grandiflorum (white jasmine) section B

As if on cue, the jasmine breaks into flower when the last adjacent French roses (Rosa gallica) are losing their petals. The national flower of Pakistan, jasmine releases its delightful fragrance at dusk, just in time for an evening stroll through the Medicinal Herb Garden.

Callirhoe involucrata (purple poppy mallow) section B

Tough, easy to grow in full sun and drought tolerant, it self-sows but not too much to control . Some plants in the garden linger on but never really thrive. Others are a bit too successful and must be constantly managed, but purple poppy mallow, though a bit sprawled out and weedy looking, is a dependable space filler with dazzling blooms.

Nolina microcarpa (sacahuista, beargrass) section C

Bees!

Behold the magic wand of bee heaven.

Honeybees love the sacahuista. The entire flower spike, roughly 8 feet tall, is covered with bees on sunny days, as long as the flowers last. If you’re local and you don’t go to observe the honeybees, you’re missing out on an amazing phenomenon. There are thousands of flowers on the single spike and every day, more flowers open. The honeybees from the hives across the street have figured it out. It is truly a rare spectacle and it might not happen again here for a long time.

spire of lofty white

Nolina microcarpa

bee heaven here now

See you in the garden.

Tomorrow is the solstice, when summer officially begins. The garden is filling in and, the traffic noise from Stevens Way excepted, it feels like a little bit of paradise. After 15 years of growth, the sacahuista is flowering for the first time and in slow motion. First the spike emerged and grew until it topped out at about 8 feet, and now the little white flowers are starting to open, a few at a time. If you can get here to see it, you should.

Nolina microcarpa (sacahuista, beargrass) section C.

Sundrops are in full bloom and the wood rose has finally flowered for the first time.

Oenothera fruticosa (sundrops) section E

Rosa gymnocarpa (dwarf rose, wood rose) Cascara Circle

A pair of gadwalls, shy cousins of the mallards, stopped by for a visit to section B recently. A few days later the crows discovered their nest, hidden in one of the beds in section C. It was a bounteous feast of fresh eggs for the crows, but a setback for the gadwalls.

Anas strepera (gadwall) If they’re looking for slugs, they have my vote.

Promenading through section B

The tian men dong is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat lung, kidney and heart conditions and it is flowering for the first time.

Asparagus cochinchinensis (tian men dong) section E

Asafoetida root resin is sometimes referred to as Devil’s dung because of its odor. The powdered resin is just the right spice for just the right meal, but its scent lingers stubbornly and unpleasantly.  It is used medicinally to treat respiratory, digestive and nervous conditions and other complaints.

Ferula assafoetida (asafoetida) section A

It’s cheating because I took these in the mountains of eastern Washington, but I have grown both species in the Medicinal Herb Garden. Scarlet gilia has been used medicinally and bitterroot has been used as food and medicine by Native Americans. Neither species ever looked as good here at the garden. Right plants, wrong place.

Lewisia rediviva (bitterroot) east slope, Washington Cascades, Iron Bear trail.

Ipomopsis aggregata (scarlet gilia) east slope Washington Cascades, Iron Bear trail

scarlet gilia

following the melting snow

a hint of summer

See you in the garden.

If you’re thinking about a stroll through the Medicinal Herb Garden, put on the flip-flops and start walking. It’s pretty colorful right now. Here are some very recent photos of the latest plants to flower, but there’s much, much more in bloom. Enjoy!

Mirabilis multiflora (Colorado four o’clock) section C

Sidalcea neomexicana (pink checkermallow) section C

Gentiana macrophylla (qin jiao) section B

Veratrum viride (green false hellebore) section A

Philadelphus lewisii (Lewis’ mock orange) Cascara Circle

Baptisia australis (blue false-indigo) section F

Opuntia polyacantha (plains pricklypear) xeriscape bed

Triteleia laxa (grassnut) section C

Vaccinium macrocarpon (cranberry) section C

Rhodiola kirilowii (roseroot, hong jing tian) section

Allium canadense (wild garlic) section D

flowerless summer

imaginable but grim

no, perish the thought

See you in the garden.

Porteranthus trifoliatus (bowman’s root) section A, has been used as an emetic, among other things, by Native Americans.

The spring rush is finally beginning to ease a bit. Spring at the Medicinal Herb Garden can be a blur. It’s busy and exhilarating but a little nerve-racking at the same time. In a public garden that is on view every day of the year, there is the constant need for improvisation. A hard winter kills plants unexpectedly, leaving big gaps in the beds or borders; seeds that came up easily last year, mysteriously don’t come up or take much longer to germinate; winter hangs on into June, making it difficult to move tender plants into the garden, or seedlings get hit by damping-off disease in the greenhouse. It’s always something. This year I started a whole flat (36 rose pots) of Porteranthus trifoliatus (bowman’s root) and watched half of them wilt and flop over from damping-off.  A quick treatment with cinnamon, which is a pretty effective fungicide, seemed to work though it’s hard to say for sure whether or not the seedlings left standing are the tough ones that would have survived anyway. But cinnamon is cheap, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Sophora flavescens (ku shen) section A. It’s used to treat skin conditions in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

And what about Sophora flavescens (ku shen)? No sign of life yet, though it was thriving last summer. We had a cold winter, but it is supposedly hardy to zone 6. Unfortunately, it has a big root crown that sits right at the soil surface, making it susceptible to hard freezes when there is no protective blanket of snow, and that is exactly what we got last winter. Sophora and the Astragalus membranaceus (huang qi) in the same bed are always a bit slow to emerge, so there’s still hope. The Astragalus is just waking up.

Astragalus membranaceus (huang qi) section A. Huang qi is a tonic herb used in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

For years I’ve wondered why there aren’t seedlings of Eupatorium aromaticum (boneset) or Inula helenium (elecampane, xuan fu hua) surrounding their garden beds.

Eupatorium aromaticum (boneset) seedlings in section B. Boneset has been used in Native American herbalism and homeopathy.

Inula helenium (elecampane, xuan fu hua) in section B pathway with a Eupatorium aromaticum seedling, is used to treat lung conditions.

They both produce a lot of seeds but they are both clumpers, meaning the plants slowly spread outward from the roots over time. There’s only so much room in a bed and I have to thin them at the edges every few years. It’s possible that there’s not a group of individual  plants anymore, just one big clonal mass. Could it be that neither species can make viable seeds because of self-incompatibility? Apparently not because this year, out of the blue, seedlings of both  have appeared in profusion. What triggered this sudden emergence? I don’t know. Seed banks resting in the soil and gravel pathways of the garden have a way of germinating unexpectedly on their own mysterious schedule, so it helps to expect the unexpected.

Withania somnifera (ashwaganda) section A. This tonic herb from India is easy to grow from seeds, as you would tomatoes.

Stevia rebaudiana (stevia) section A. A natural, sugar-free sweetener that is easy to grow and to root from cuttings. You can keep it inside by a window for winter.

There’s nothing like abrupt changes in the garden to inspire the inquisitive among us to get down and inspect closely, looking for effects and their causes . This spring, many of us are seeing the effects of last winter’s extreme cold in our gardens, but in the first few years of the 21st century, we had some winters in Seattle that barely went below freezing. Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) made it through the winter outside, a feat unheard of in recent years, but unfortunately, so did greenhouse thrips (Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis). They had their way with many species in the Ericaceae family and nearly decimated the salal (Gaultheria shalon) in the Medicinal Herb Garden. A solemn meeting was convened with the concerned parties on campus and all sorts of solutions were suggested. But some very cold winters did the work for us and put the thrips to rout.

Gaultheria shalon (salal) Cascara Circle. Salal fruit are sweet and tasty, raw or cooked

Who knows for sure how future weather patterns will play out? The overwhelming scientific consensus is that we are heading into a period of increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather events. That’s reason enough to get out into the garden (yours, a friend’s, a public garden, p-patch etc.) and experience it through all of the seasons, from starting seeds to collecting seeds. Working the whole year in the garden seems like the best way to get the fullest picture and the most useful knowledge. To learn a lot in a short period, if you’re new to gardening, you might try keeping notes on planting and harvest dates, weather data, insect infestations, heavy and light fruit tree harvest years, and on and on. If you keep accurate and consistent notes and have friends and neighbors who will do the same, your contributions can add to your community’s sense of food security, resilience and interdependence.  Plus, it’s enjoyable to sit around on dark winter days, comparing notes and trading seeds and bits of wisdom over food and drink.

That few children are being taught good gardening skills (including composting, basic taxonomy, natural history of plants, animals, soils, watersheds etc.) in the public schools, from preschool onward, says much about our collective priorities. There are two long-out-of-print books (and probably many more…try Dover Publications; they specialize in publishing out-of-print, public domain books) called Among School Gardens (1911) by Louise M. Greene, and Children’s Gardens for School and Home: A Manual of Cooperative Gardening (1904) by Louise Klein Miller. Well, lucky us, they’ve been recently reprinted and you can get the former for about $15 and the latter for about $10. They are both classics and an inspiration and will hopefully be a call to action for anyone who reads them, especially teachers. But teachers are in a tough place, trying to do more with leaner resources in our oddly depleted 21st century in which the rich keep getting richer while our basic social service institutions suffer slow death by a thousand cuts. May the gardens return soon to all schools everywhere.

weather permitting

our age of agriculture

this place we call home

See you in the garden.

It’s getting harder to keep up with everything that is flowering. The pictures in this post are a fraction of what has come into bloom.  Recent warm weather and a little rain have been ideal. Compared to the last two springs, this has been easy so far.

Leuzea carthamoides (maralroot) section B

From northeast Asia, maralroot is considered an adaptogen and has been used by Russian and Chinese athletes to improve recovery after intense physical activity.

Fremontodendron californicum ( fremontia, flannel bush) border areas

Native to California and Arizona, fremontia does well in protected, relatively sunny, well-drained spots in Seattle. They’re evergreen, the flowers last a long time and the inner bark has been used to treat irritated skin and mucous membrane. Ironically, the fuzzy outer bark causes irritation of skin and mucous membrane.

Lilium columbianum (Columbia lily) section A

Growing in our western mountains, from British Columbia to California, Columbia lily bulbs and flowers are edible. Native Americans have traditionally eaten the bulbs, usually either steamed in pits or mashed, dried into cakes and stored for winter use.

Saussurea costus (mu xiang, kushtha, kutha) section A

Known in Traditional Chinese Medicine by its Chinese name, mu xiang, and in Ayurvedic Medicine by its Indian names, kushtha or kutha, Saussurea costus is used to treat a wide range of digestive and respiratory ailments and other illnesses. Oil extracted from the roots is an ingredient in some perfumes. Like so many medicinal plants, Saussurea costus has been overharvested in its native habitat, in this case the Himalayas. Luckily, it is being grown commercially which brings the price down so there’s not as much economic incentive to harvest from wild populations of the plant. We’ve seen the same problem in the USA with American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) and goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis)  and other plants. Hopefully, all over the world, more people will start commercially growing their native medicinal plants to help take the pressure off the endangered wild populations.

Arisaema triphyllum (Jack in the pulpit) section E

If you look closely, you will see Jack in his pulpit.

Wyethia angustifolia (narrow-leaf mule’s ears) section C

For springtime glory, mule’s ears (Wyethia spp.) gives balsamroot (Balsamorhiza spp.) a run for its money and grows well on the west side of the Cascades in full sun and well-drained soil. Native Americans used leaves and roots medicinally and ground the seeds for pinole.

Sphaeralcea coccinea (scarlet globemallow) section D

Give this globemallow plenty of sun and a very well-drained soil and leave it alone. It’s a credit to any rock garden.

Rosa gallica (French rose) section B

Yes, it gets black spot and rust and it suckers like crazy, but who cares! The beauty and fragrance are all that matters. The French rose is in a bed adjacent to the Chinese peonies and their flowering times overlap. Don’t miss them.

Paeonia lactiflora (common peony, bai shao) section B.

Like many good things in life, peony flowers don’t as last long as we’d like, so take the time to savor them. If you come to look,  get close enough to sample their scent, more subtle than the French rose but a perfect complement and prelude. Just as these flowers start to wane, the French roses hit their peak.

Dodecatheon jeffreyi (Sierra shooting star) section A

I once came across a whole meadow of Sierra shooting star, flowering in a meadow along the upper reaches of Ingalls Creek Valley on the east slopes of the Washington Cascades, a very nice surprise in early summer.

Leptospermum scoparium (manuka) section D border

The bees of New Zealand make a potent honey from manuka flowers. The shrub can grow to 15 feet or more in New Zealand. I’d be happy to get mine to 15 inches. Our short but extreme cold spells have really knocked them back the last few years. I should cover them as I do the olives and capers. Resolved! This year I will.

Catharanthus roseus (Madagascar periwinkle) section C

Vincristine and vinblastine, two of the alkaloids found in Madagascar periwinkle, are used to effectively treat various cancers, including childhood leukemia.

Tragopogon porrifolius (salsify, oyster plant) Section C

Scorzonera hispanica (Spanish salsify, black salsify) section C

They’re both called salsify and their roots, flowers, spring growth and seeds are edible. Tragopogon porrifolius roots are considered a food medicine to treat liver and gallbladder conditions.

Thymus vulgaris (common thyme) border between sections A and B

Common or not, thyme is a very important culinary herb and medicine with antibacterial and antifungal properties. It should be growing in every yard in the country. It’s easy to grow. Once established in a sunny spot, you can forget about it until you need it. Mediterranean herbs, where would we be without them?

Olea europea (olive) section A border

The flowers aren’t big or exciting, but consider how diminished our lives would be without olives or olive oil. Though it has contenders, if any plant is fit to represent the Mediterranean region, it is the olive. I’m growing three cultivars, Arbequina and Manzanillo from Spain, and a Leccino from Italy. May the olive trees of the world live long and be fruitful.

grey-green olive tree

add grapes and figs and almonds

then briny sea breeze

See you in the garden.