FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
SPANISH THYME, CUBAN OREGANO, INDIA BORAGE: A highly fragrant, strongly flavored plant used for seasoning. The taste is unique. It definitely doesn’t look or taste like an oregano or thyme or borage (or the common Coleus, either), having succulent, slightly hairy, light green leaves up to 4 cm. across. An easy potted plant but don’t let it freeze. Also called Plectranthus amboinicus. Often found in a variegated form. From the East Indies.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
HYSSOP: A hardy small aromatic woody shrub with narrow dark green leaves and either white, pink or dark blue flowers. Traditionally, it’s been used as a tonic, expectorant, stomachic, carminative. Used in treating bronchitis and colds, improving the appetite, and in the liqueur Chartreuse. Grow in full sun in loose, well-drained soil.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
IBOZA: An African medicinal plant with small white flowers in the winter and aromatic, fuzzy, scalloped green leaves. 1 to 2 meters tall with a strange smell. Also called Tetradenia riparia.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
ENGLISH LAVENDER: Also called Lavandula vera and L. officinalis. Narrow gray-green leaves and spikes of small lavender flowers on a .5 meter plant. Fine scent. This variety is what most people think of as lavender. I’m not selling it this year. What you will buy under this name from nurseries is a seedling that could very well be called by one of the following L. angustifolia varietal names… or you could name it yourself.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
YELLOW LAVENDER: From the Canary Islands, this is a large plant 2-3′ tall and sprawling with yellow green leaves and yellow flowers. It has a strong, oily scent and looks very similar to Spanish lavender.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
LION’S TAIL, WILD DAGGA: A large bush (to 6′ tall) with whorls of 2½” orange flowers in the late fall. Needs much sun and a long,dry growing season to produce active flowers. African tribes smoke the leaves and flowering tops as a euphoriant. (dagga means marijuana). Hardy to freezing, but needs a frost-free fall to bloom and a long, hot fall to produce active resinous tops.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
“There is no better herb to drive melancholy vapours from the heart, to strengthen it and make the mind cheerful, blithe and merry.”
— Culpepper
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MOTHERWORT: It’s also very bitter with a pungent smell. A tall, hardy perennial (dormant in winter), it easily grows almost anywhere. Likes sun.
It’s a sedative, antispasmodic, emmenagogue, cardiotonic. Used by “mothers” since the Greek Empire in amenorrhÅ“a and dysmenorrhÅ“a. Not to be used without supervision during pregnancy. A valuable medicinal herb.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
MARIJUANILLA, YI-MU-CAO: Easy to grow hardy annual or biennial with 2-3′ tall spikes of white to pinkish-purple woolly flowers. The leaves and flowers are smoked as a “psychic” herb in Central America and are used in traditional Chinese medicine in a manner similar to L. cardiaca, with the same precautions. The seeds are used medicinally to regulate the menses and to promote circulation.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
LEMON BALM: Having been cultivated for over 2000 years, this refreshingly lemon-scented and -tasting herb was so popular in Europe that it was called Thé de France. The Arabs introduced it medicinally, specifically for treating anxiety and depression. It’s carminative, antispasmodic and diaphoretic. Used in the liqueurs Benedictine and Chartreuse. Must be used fresh.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
The mint family is large and growing. Its popularity is well deserved: mints are stimulant, carminative, antispasmodic, antiseptic, aromatic and anti-inflammatory… And many taste good. They are widely used in teas and as flavorings. Most are easily grown and like part shade or
sun (if given generous amounts of water). The Latin nomenclature is vague on many of the species and varieties; any living thing that has been cultivated and inbred for 1000s of years is often difficult to categorize.
I have a great personal fondness for mints, having been raised on mint tea by my Pennsylvania Dutch grandmother back in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (USA), a New World German colony.
Most mints are spreading, hardy perennials. I once thought it would be ‘neat’ to plant a raised bed of just mints. This was a bad idea, but I wouldn’t try to tell you how to live your lives. If you wish to preserve any individual varieties, however, do not let your mints go to seed: some may cross breed and not remain true to type.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
CATNIP: A mild stimulant, carminative, antispasmodic, anti-diarrheoic, weak emmenagogue for humans and, for cats, a wild aphrodisiac, stimulant and inebriant (I often can’t quite tell the difference between these three effects). Several old herbals warn that if smoked, catnip may have the “undesirable” side effect of being a mild hallucinogen but quite a bit would have to be smoked. If you value your garden, don’t plant this near other plants you don’t want your, or your neighbors’ cats to roll in (which, inevitably, it or they will do). Grows to a large, hardy herb in full sun.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
DITTANY OF CRETE: A downy leaved plant with spikes of delicate hop-like pink flowers and small gray-green (½”) leaves on 1′ long arching stems. Very beautiful. Grows well in a pot or very well drained soil in full sun. Tender to the mid 20ºs f.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
SWEET MARJORAM: A tender culinary plant with a very sweet oregano flavor and aroma, almost perfume like. Likes full sun and well-drained soil. From Portugal.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
SYRIAN OREGANO, BIBLICAL HYSSOP: A very fine, the finest, in my opinion, flavored oregano (use caution here in accepting the word of a person you don’t know… I also love strong garlic and hot, hot chili peppers).
This oregano has slightly hairy, light green leaves and small white flowers on 3′ long stems. Needs very intense sun; originally from Syria. This plant is believed to be the “hyssop” mentioned in the Christian Bible, since hyssop was unknown in the area at the time.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
SICILIAN or ITALIAN or SEEDLESS or SWEET OREGANO: Looks a bit like marjoram and has a little of marjoram’s sweetness to it, but is of a stronger flavor. Has white flowers and relatively small light green leaves, growing to a height of about 2′.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
COMMON OREGANO: This is probably what you used before you read about the others.
Medicinally, it is expectorant, antiseptic, antispasmodic, carminative, tonic, stomachic and anti-inflammatory (and you thought oregano was simply a seasoning). It aids digestion and is supposed to ease nervous headaches. It tastes pretty good in spaghetti.
Unfortunately, I’m not selling the real common oregano. Every plant I’ve purchased that was labeled Oregano vulgare has been some other species. Either this classification thing has gotten out of control, or common oregano has become extinct.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
PATCHOULI: A very tender, 2-3′ tall, tropical shrub that needs warm, moist, rich soil in sun or part shade and absolutely no frost.
Very strong patchouli scent. Either you love it or you don’t. Originally popular in India, patchouli was the scent used by non-ethnic hippies, ca. 1960s, in their attempts to cover the marijuana smoke scent on their bodies and clothing. It is also used in scenting India Ink. Also sold as P. patchouli.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
“Against weyknese of the brayne and coldness thereof, sethe rosemaria in wyne and lete the pacyent receye the smlke at his nose and keep his heed warme.”
— Crete Herbal
ROSEMARY, ROMERO: Rosemary will generally survive anywhere that doesn’t freeze if the roots are kept well-drained.
It is a stimulant, stomachic, tonic, &c. A pleasant, strong herb associated with memory, happiness and repelling witches (from personal experience, this historical property doesn’t seem to work). Drinking rosemary water was said to do away with all bodily evil; excessive doses are lethal, though, should you feel your body has more than its allotted share.
In ancient Greece, the birthplace of Democracy, rosemary was used to adorn virgins before sacrifice. Rosemary honey, from Provence, is used as an invigorating agent and to increase male potency. Good in spaghetti.
If you are looking for “real” rosemary, or the “real” Rosmarinus officinalis, read the section on Oregano vulgare. Then buy seeds and take your chances. “Real” is a relative concept, botanically and culinarily speaking. The following are all cultivated varieties of this plant. Each has its own charm:
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
WHITE or INCENSE SAGE: Hardy down to about 20° f. A spectacular plant for mild climates; native to the southern California coastal mountains.
It has 4-5″ white leathery, highly fragrant leaves with long purplish stems (to 8′) and small white flowers in the summer. Grows to 6′ tall and in diameter (not counting the flower stalks). Likes soil well drained. Used by California natives and others as smudge sticks. The seeds must be washed of their mucilaginous coating before germination.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
DIVINE SAGE, PIPILTZINTZINTLI: This plant is used by the Mazatec Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico, for telepathy and clairvoyant insights.
CAUTION: If you are in Mexico and you ask herbalists or regular people for “salvia” you will most likely get Aloe vera. “Salvia” is what Aloe is called here and it’s a very popular medicinal herb.
It has square, winged stems and large (to 8″ long) fragile, dark green, almost iridescent leaves on a sprawling plant to 2 meters tall. Has hairy white ¾” flowers within purple bracts and calyxes. It flowers in winter, with flowering triggered by a day-length of 11 hours.
Grow in rich jungle soil or in a very large pot with a loose, moist, very rich soil mix high in humus. Tender to about 25° although will be damaged by any amount of frost. Salvia likes cool, 80° summer temperatures with high humidity: mist in hot weather or keep in a high-humidity (above 60%) environment.
Salvia has a light scent and a bitter taste, sunburns easily (grow in heavy shade) and is the favorite food of many greenhouse pests. Native shamans use(d) it by making a tea of 50-60 dried leaves (not well absorbed through the intestinal tract) or by keeping 6-18 chewed fresh leaves in the mouth (being absorbed through the mucus membranes of the mouth, a somewhat difficult task because of the bitterness). The dried leaves may be smoked, a much more effective method of ingestion.
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FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
FRUIT SCENTED SAGE: A tender (to high 20ºs f.) sage with 3-5″ light green, slightly hairy, very pleasantly fruit-scented leaves. Spikes of 2″ rose-pink flowers in winter on 3-5′ stems in mid-winter.
This is one of the plants in the nursery that I have to rub and smell every time I walk by it; I love it. Grow in very rich, well drained soil with quite a bit of moisture. From Honduras.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
PINEAPPLE SAGE: Dark green leaves on long (4-6′) stems topped by brilliantly red or salmon colored 1½” flowers in the winter and early spring. The whole plant is pineapple scented. It likes rich soil and spreads slightly by runners. Hardy down to about 24° f. and will die to the ground and regrow in the spring from lower temperatures if the roots are protected from freezing. Easily grown in the tropics.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
“GRAPEFRUIT” SAGE: A lightly grapefruit scented sage with sticky 2-4″ light green leaves and spikes of bright red 2″ flowers in winter and spring. Has the sweetest and most abundant nectar of all sages, and is probably the largest sage (to 7′ tall, minimum) to be found in this catalog.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
MEXICAN BUSH SAGE: Velvety 1″ purple and white flowers on a highly scented 2-3′ tall shrub with gray 3-5″ long narrow leaves. Flowers late summer. Hardy to the mid 20ºs f. Full sun, dry soil.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
YELLOW FLOWERED SAGE: Large dark green pebbled leaves and a square, winged stem on a 4-5′ tall plant with spikes of yellow flowers in winter. Rare. Full sun.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
RED SAGE, DANSHEN: A medicinal sage from China whose red roots are used to promote blood circulation and to “calm the mind by nourishing the heart.” Also used for menstruation problems. Easy to grow in moist, but well-drained sandy soil in full sun.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
GARDEN SAGE: Tonic, memory improver, body wash for itchy skin, &c. An ancient Arab proverb says, “How can a man die who has sage in his garden?” Obviously, there are ways, but still this is a very useful plant to have around. Grow in full sun in any well-drained garden soil.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
“Some brewers of ale and beere doe put it into their drinke to make it more heady, fit to please drunkards, who thereby, according to their several dispositions, become either dead drunke, or foolish drunke, or madde drunke.”
— Lobel
CLARY SAGE, MUSCATEL SAGE: A biennial in harsher climes, and a perennial here at the nursery. Large (to 10″) basal leaves with 3-4′ tall stalks of white/blue fragrant flowers with rose and white floral leaves. Very ornamental. The mucilaginous seeds are used to clear the eyes, the leaves are used to flavor wine (Clary wine was considered an aphrodisiac by Dioscorides). Antispasmodic, stimulant, emmenagogue.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
TARAHUMARA GRAPE SCENTED SAGE: Hardy to the high 20ºs f. A coarse, pleasantly scented (like grapes, of course) sage used by the Tarahumara of Mexico.
The small leaves and flowers are a bit sticky and it has standard sage-blue flowers. Tends to a sparser, taller growth (to 3-4′) than garden sage, S. officinalis. Also called S. mellissifolia.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
YERBA BUENA: San Francisco, California was first named Yerba buena (good herb) because this plant grew so prolifically on its hill sides. Now, of course, San Francisco has just asphalt, cement, houses and office buildings on its hills. Even so, I consider it one of the best cities in the USA. Through centuries of attempts at civilizing and acculturating its inhabitants, San Francisco has retained its frontier-town, Barbary Coast spirit and hasn’t succumbed to the inbred stagnation of many larger American cities.
San Francisco is the unofficial capital of Gay America, in spite of the all too evident bigotry expressed by things such as a freeway billboard reading “San Francisco, Home of Twinkiesâ„¢” (former San Francisco police officer, Dan White, murdered the first openly gay city supervisor, Harvey Milk, using as his defense, insanity because he had low blood sugar from eating too many Twinkiesâ„¢). There are many parts of SF that still remain free. There are many people in this town that still remain free.
The native Californians used this plant to purify the blood and to relieve colic. As a tea it was used to treat arthritis, and when mixed with mint, was used as a sedative for insomnia. It has a strong menthol taste. It is a creeper with small white flowers. For shady areas.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
HUANG-QIN: For over 2000 years, this herb has been used in Chinese medicine for treating colds, fever, high blood pressure, insomnia, dysentery, hepatitis and more. The root is used. The plant is very cold hardy and drought tolerant and grows to about 15″ tall. Large blue flowers. It needs sun and well drained soil.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
MAD DOG SKULLCAP: One of the finest natural nervines. Also a strong tonic and antispasmodic. Prefers ordinary garden soil in full sun or part shade. Native to Eastern North America. Small blue flowers on a minty looking 3′ tall plant.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
CAT THYME: A small hardy shrub with small gray green leaves and small spikes of pink flowers. An aphrodisiac to cats; they love to eat it, though it smells (to humans, at least) much like ether. Contains the cat-active lactones, dolicholactone C & D. Grow in sandy, very well-drained soil in full sun.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
CARAWAY THYME: A highly caraway scented and tasting culinary, creeping, 4″ high, with pink flowers and small dark green leaves. Grow in a very loose, well-drained soil in full sun.
FAMILY: LAMIACEAE
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