Medicinal Uses of Borage

Borage (rhymes with courage) flowers are wonderfully fuzzy! And the flowers are a true blue. Borage has culinary uses, but I will not go into those here.

Collection of borage for medicinal purposes should be as follows: leaves when young, flowers while in bloom, and seeds after they have matured.

Tea from the leaves is used to dispel melancholy. The tea will also serve as a sedative. It soothes bronchitis, pleurisy, and rheumatism. It reduces fevers, dry coughs, and dry-skin rashes.

Eating the seeds will stimulate lactation in nursing mothers and help a person lose weight. Eating the seeds will retard the aging process and reverse hair loss. The seeds contain omega 3 essential fatty acids which can reduce inflammatory conditions that contribute to heart conditions.

Borage has very high levels of gamma linolenic acid which is effective against cancer.

What's Blooming Now - Grandma's Yellow Rose

Grandma's Yellow Rose is loaded with buds and blooms. Mine is only two years old.

Grandma's Yellow Rose is a true yellow.

This is Grandma's Yellow Rose growing next to Graham Thomas Rose.

Adding a Hive Box for my Bees

A Weekend at the Farm 04/17-18/10

This is All Gold Japanese Forest Grass 'Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold'. It is growing in the Wave Garden.

Saturday and Sunday were cloudy. I stayed busy planting lots of things that I ordered on the internet.

• I planted 5 All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses in the Wave Garden and three Adagio Grasses (which turn red in the fall), three Black Seeded Moudry Grasses (which have dark seed heads).



• I planted 12 hostas in the Shade Garden: three Patriots, three Krossa Regals, three Stained Glass, Alligator Shoes.



• I also planted some Colocasias (Elepant Ears) in the Shade Garden. I planted ten Colocasia esculenta 'Illustris' and ten Colocasia fontenesii' Black Stem' and one Colocasia esculenta 'Nancy's Revenge'. The Shade Garden should be quite dramatic in a short time.



• I planted some bulbs which are living antiques. These bulbs had largely disappeared from trade. They were rescued by Old House Bulbs and they are now for sale in limited quantities. Montbretias, St. Joseph's Lilies, and some Shenandoah Cannas. They were introduced over a hundred years ago. They each have interesting histories.



• I planted some Eucomis comosa. Its common name is Pineapple Lily.



• I planted Bouncing Bet in the Infinity Garden with the other medicinal herbs.


• Finally, I planted two Salvia greggii 'Heatwave Glimmer'. This blooms a creamy white.


• My daughter, Blake, and Josh came on Saturday. Josh mowed the paths - what a help! Blake sprayed the paths with herbicide. One less thing. Next weekend is out Crawfish Boil. So there's lots to do.

This is an unopened Red Hot Poker.

What's Blooming Now - Hinckley Columbine 04/18/10

What's Blooming Now - Chrysler Imperial Rose and Mrs. Dudley Cross Rose 04/17/10

Chrylser Imperial is the best smelling rose in my Rose Garden. Unforgettable!

Mrs. Dudley Cross is a tea rose.

Medicinal Uses of Curry Plant

The foliage of the Curry Plant is very fragrant. It smells like the herb Murraye koenigii which is used in Indian cooking, but curry plant is not used much in cooking. It is sometimes chopped and mixed with cream cheese to use as a sandwich spread.

But, medicinally, the essential oil can be used therapeutically to treat acne, psoriasis, sunburn, and inflamed skin.

What's Blooming Now - Naples Garlic 04/15/10

Allium Neapolitanum, or Naples Garlic, is a spring bloomer. It spreads very quickly and will form a solid bed of greenery followed by white flowers. Once the weather gets hot the foliage withers and disappears. It returns reliably every year in very early spring / late winter. This is a good one to put under tall trees (doesn't want a lot of shade) or a flower bed that doesn't get any attention. It will take care of all your problems if you want fast coverage. This is the first year for these bulbs in my garden. I will have twice as many bulbs next year and so on and so on.

What's Blooming Now Duchess de Brabant Rose 04/15/10

Duchess de Brabant has been around since 1857. It is said to be one of Teddy Roosevelt's favorites, and he often wore a bud or flower as a boutonniere. Duchess de Brabant is a shrub tea rose. Tea roses droop a bit, they don't sit straight up on the stem like the hybrid tea roses.

What's Blooming Now - Irises 04/14/10

I think irises are beautiful photographic subjects. Whether the camera captures from above, from the side or from close-up, their form and color are always wonderful.

I don't know what kind of iris this is. I bought it under the name of Persian Berry, but this is what grew. It was misslabeled. But what a lucky happenstance for me. It is quite beautiful.

What's Blooming Now - Persian Berry Irises 04/13/10

Persian Berry irises have an ephemeral look to them. They are very big flowers.

What's Blooming Now - Byzantine Gladiola 04/13/10

Sometimes these gladiolas, very different from their fancy cousins, are called corn flags. Corn flags are native to Turkey and the Mediterranean. These will multiply. In a few years the ground around these plants will disappear from view and I will have a mass of pretty corn flags.

What's Blooming Now - Gulf Coast Penstemon 04/12/10

I have 5 Gulf Coast Penstemon planted in the Long Border. This is a Texas native. They bloom tubular, purple flowers. This is the first season I have ever grown it so I don't know if the growth habit continues to be as upright as it appears to be in the picture. After the flowers drop off, seed pods will form that are about a quarter of an inch long and just as wide. Each seed pod is filled with many tiny seeds. One of the plants I bought still had a spent flower stem with several seed pods attached. That's how I know about the pods. Clearly, Gulf Coast Penstemon will spread rapidly since it throws off a lot of seed.

What's Blooming Now - Valentine Rose 04/10/10

Valentine rose, introduced in 1951, puts on quite a show. The flowers are semi-double and velvety red. The flowers have no fragrance. My rose is only about 3 feet tall and has an open growth habit. It is really pretty and well worth adding to a collection.

Beautiful Poppies

Sometimes these poppies are wonderfully full and frilly and sometimes they are singles.

I love poppy seed pods. They have a wonderful shape. When the pods dry out thousands of seeds will spill out of each one.

A group of single-petalled pink poppies growing with California poppies.

Poppy buds have drooping heads until they open.

What's Blooming Now - Lafter 04/8/10

Laughter really is the best medicine. The shrub rose Lafter was introduced in 1948. The flowers are a blend of yellow, orange, and pink. My Lafter shrub is about 6 feet tall. Very pretty.

What's Blooming Now - Monsieur Tillier Rose 04/09/10

The Long Border

The list of plants in the Long Border are as follows:

3 Madame Antoine Mari Roses

6 Sea Star Sedum

6 'May Queen' Ox-Eye Daisy

6 Pink Double Delight Coneflower

3 Jerusalem Sage

1 'Lady Baltimore' Mallow

5 Parsley

Multiple Dahlberg Daisy

1 'Lindleyana' Buddleia

1 'White Profusion' Budleia

1 'Griffin Blue' Buddleia

6 Powderpuff Holleyhock

6 Verbena Bonariensis

3 'Cerise Queen' Yarrow

6 'Butterfly Blue' Scabiosa

3 Queen Anne's Lace

3 Tropical Sunrise Canna

3 Dawn Pink Canna

3 Lamb's Ear

6 Homestead Purple Verbena

6 Donalena Deep Pink Verbena

3 'Tutti Frutti' Agastache

3 Blackfoot Daisy

3 Sangria Crinums

3 Splendens Crinums

6 Gulf Coast Penstemons

Four o'Clocks

Celosia

Snow Nymph Salvia

Cleome

Pink Cypress Vine

What's Blooming Now - Red Buckeye 04/06/10

My little Red Buckeye is about 5 feet tall. It will grow to about 20 feet tall. By mid summer buckeyes lose all their leaves (as opposed to losing them in the fall when all the other trees lose theirs). This does not make them a good candidate for a tree in the front yard of a home in a subdivision. But it is perfect for a woodland setting such as mine. Red Buckeyes like a little shade. They are understory trees. I think the leaves are very pretty.

A Few Herbs in My Medicinal Herb Garden

What's Blooming Now - Lady Hillingdon Rose 04/05/10

I thought this bud was perfect and beautiful.

A Garden for My Son

A Weekend at the Farm 04/03-04/10

'Evan Saul' Orange Coneflower - a butterfly magnet.

Persian Berry Bearded Iris buds.

Easter weekend. My husband's son, wife and friends came to camp near the tree house.

• I fertilized everything in the Shade Garden.



• I sprayed the roses for blackspot.



• I spent some time adjusting hoses - again!



• I filled in half of the new flowerbed and planted zinnias - White Wedding, Highlight, Purple Prince, Violet Queen, and Scarlett Flame.



• I planted two Chocolate Mints in a pot and placed it in the Infinity Garden.



• I planted some Sweet Marjoram in the Herb Garden. Also cleaned it up a bit - pulled up some pesky mint and cut away some debris.



• Pulled weeds in the Rose Garden.



• Pulled weeds in the Vegetable Garden.



• I planted some grasses in the Wave Garden:



• Two Goldbar Grass



• Six Golden Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola')



• Three All Gold Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold')



• Two Sarabande Grass (Miscanthus sinensis sarabande)



• I also planted some Blackfoot Daisies (Melampodiom leucathum) in the Long Border. They should do well - they don't like a lot of moisture once they get established.



• I planted some wormwood (Atemisia 'Powis Castle') in the Infinity Garden.



• The Scarlett O'Hara and Heavenly Blue Morning Glory seeds are popping up that I planted last week.



• I fertilized the rest of the fruit trees that I didn't get a chance to do last week.



• On Sunday my husband was mowing too near the bee hive and was stung a half dozen times or more. Sunday was a cloudy day. Bees are aggressive on cloudy days.



• My 'Maliner Kren' Horseradish has come up. I planted the roots last week.


• Planted some Toothache Plant. Long ago the leaves were rubbed into a paste and applied around a tooth to numb the area before extraction.


• More plants are peeping out from their winter dormancy - Firespike, Lady Baltimore Mallow, Ghost Fern, Painted Fern. I keep waiting for the Candlestick Plant to show some green, but nothing so far. I'm particularly interested in the Candlestick because I really like it and because it is planted around the pool. I want the area to be leafy and verdant.

A perfect Jessie's Song Bearded Iris flower. So pretty.

What's Blooming Now - Mrs. B. R. Cant 04/04/10

My rose shrub is loaded with buds.

Mrs. B. R. Cant was introduced in 1901. The blooms are fat and cabbagey. This tea rose get very, very big! Give it lots of room.