The Herbarist 2020 Issue 85

HSA

Membership Delegates

0. Tucker, III, PhD

A complete list ofsponsors and underwriters may be found on page 52. Cover: Common milkweed seed ready to take wind for creating the next generation.

Photo by Mara Koenig/USFWS

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Popping_Milkweed_ (22523999046).jpg

Underwritten by Maryann and Tom Readal

It is the policy ofThe Herb Society of America not to advise or recommend herbs for medicinal or healthuse. Thisinformation isintendedforeducational purposesonlyandshouldnotbeconsidered as a recommendation or an endorsement of any particular medical or health treatment. Please consulta healthcare providerbeforepursuing anyherbaltreatments.

Theresa Mieseler

In the early years ofoperating my herb farm I was busy with the day-to-day tasks as any grower would be. I wasn't in tune as to where a plant originally came from or who perhaps discovered it. I waslooking for new plants to grow, techniques to propagate them, and learn aboutany special care they may need. Clients wanted new plants they could purchase for their gardens. For many yearsthatis whatI didalong with the routine operations of running thebusinessthat myhusband, Jim, and I founded: Shady Acres Herb Farm.

There was so much to discover, and I was learning as much as Ipossibly could about theherbs. I joined The Herb Society of America in the mid-seventies and formed many valued lifetime friendships. It's where I would share herb stories and growing experiences.

I growherbsfor color and designin the garden, for flavor incooking, forhealth, andforaromainpotpourri. Another purpose is to show them offto friends coming to my home. We stroll through thegardens, touch theleaves, andinhale. It is a pleasure for me to see them smile and enjoy the fragrances that I love to share.

From thesestrolls I realized Ihadstoriesabout the people who discoveredsomeofthese plants. Somewerefriendsand some I did not know but I would ask them for their story of their plant. People gave me stories about their discovery, and shared theirrecipes with me, too.

Here are several of the plants I learned about from the keepers, thosewho discovered the plants.

Angelicagigas {Korean Angelica)

Ihadbeengrowing thisspectacularangelicaforanumber of years but knew little of its history. It is a biennial and winter hardy in Minnesota. Bees, wasps, and flies are attracted to the flowers, and you will find them fluttering aroundthe tops oftheflowers. Itisaphotogenicherbthatis waiting for you to take its picture-it changes every day when leaves develop, and flowers unfold. I have Korean angelica planted on a former railroad bed where it is somewhat gravelly and partly sunny. The fact that deer don'ttouch it makes meveryhappy since thereareherds of deer on my property. Korean angelica is native in Korea, Manchuria, and the Kyushu and Shikoku islands in Japan.

I wanted to learn more and eventually found Barry Yinger and he graciously gave his story of this angelica. Barry Yinger's first encounter with A. gigas was in August 1981. At the end of a two-year stay on Korea's west coast, Barry washostingaJapanesefriend, Toshio, onhisfirsttrip to Korea. In Barry's words, "As my plant appreciation circuits approached overload, I encountered my first specimen of A. gigas towering above the splendid chaos all around it. For a moment I was stunned, then suspicious. Not long before, in Japan, Toshio and I had discovered a

During the middle ages, monastic properties and noble estates alikededicatedspacesfor orchards, which doubled as cemeteries for senior ranking churchmen and recreation spaces for the nobility. Space was also devoted to coney-garths (forhousingrabbits for the table, baffling to moderngardeners, who try to keep rabbits OUT of the garden for the most part!).Friday ponds were stocked with fish to meet religious requirements when meats were prohibited per the church calendar.But tempusfugit, and a series of natural andmanmade disasters made a profound impact on utility gardening.

Figuratively and literally, gardening cameinto its own following the arrival of theBlackDeathin themid-14thcentury.With theloss of 30-60% of the population throughout Europe, human labor becamemore valuable andsomeland became available to yeomen farmers for private ownership (Fearnley-Whittingstall, 2003).With themarriage ofHenry Tudor to Elizabeth ofYorkin 1486, the "War of the Roses" came to an end, ushering in a period of increased stabilityin England.

WhenHenry'ssurvivingheir,HenryVIII, dissolved theCatholic Church in England, he seized and sold more than 8000 properties (Fearnley-Whittingstall, 2003).Amid these social and economic changes, the late 15th and early 16th centuries, a middle class of merchants and tradesmen arose some of whomwereable to accrue wealth to a level that rivaled members of the nobility.Many of the new bourgeois sought thefiner thingsin life, from clothing to land, which could be rented out for farming or, in a more prominent display of wealth and desired status, used for the construction of a displaygarden.While utilitygardenswere stillnecessary, theywere relegated to the back of theestateor to acreageaway from thehouse.

1545, is still maintained by the University in the same location (Clifford, 1963).Here we find the first plant labels. Up to this time, gardeners knew at least the common name of their plants. Adventurers and travelers of the 16th century brought new, unfamiliar andexoticspecies, which needed to be categorized and given Latin names under Linnaeus' new taxonomic system.

Ornamental gardening came to the fore, and private collectors competed with research gardens to showcase the latest novelties. The most well-knownexampleof this phenomenon was thearrival of the tulip from the Ottoman empirein the 1550s.Tulips found a championinFrenchbotanistCharlesde L'Ecluse, whose collection supplied enthusiasts throughout Europe.The passion for tulips, especially for unusual curious multi-colored blooms (many of which were, in reality, plants infected with mosaic virus, rather than new species) culminated in the "tulip mania" of the 17th century, and eventually positioned Amsterdam as thebulbgrowing capital of the world (Dash, 1999).

William Lawson aimed his 1617 garden book, The Country Housewife's Garden, at thoserecentlygentrifiedEnglishladieswho werelaying out theirgarden spaces.He recommended keeping the ornamental "summer" garden apart from the kitchen garden because its harvest "must yield daily Roots, or other herbs, and suffer deformity" (Lawson, 1983). But new and rare varieties of edible plants wereworthy of display, and gardeners to the king of France advanced the cutting-edge ornamental kitchen gardening trend, which saw its height with the establishment of Louis XIV's spectacularroyalpotagerduringthelast quarter of the 17thcentury.

Woolandsilktapestryportraying agentlemaninarosegarden, SouthNetherlandish 14S0-55

By the mid-16th century and into the 17th, literacy had grown among the middle classes and books became more affordable due to mass printing.Herbals and cookbooks provided information about plants thatwerebeingusedin both the daily diet and the treatment of various medical conditions. Following the dissolution of monastic communities in England, where common folk had been able to seek medical care, many household manuals added directions for the concentration of essential oils via distillation. The head of the household could prepare more costly substances such as rosewater, which was used as perfume, medicine, a cookingingredient, and air freshener, rather than purchasing them from a physician.

The natural philosophy movement during the 16th century gave rise to the sciences as we now know them, including the field of botany.The first botanical garden for the study of plants, not merely those grown as a practical resource, was established in Pisa, Italy in 1544.The second, built in Padua in

For the average gardener, theharvesting of pot herbs, onions, and the like would, in the normal course of day-to-day activities, ruin the appearance of such a garden.This concern remains as of 2013, as Laurent Portuguez, director of the extant kitchen gardens of Villandry says in the BBC series, "The Gourmet Garden": "Our potager is decorative, it's not about feeding people.The vegetables are a landscape, a living mosaic, so we can't harvest the vegetables and leave great holes in the beds but we do harvest the peppers and aubergines and we give them to visitors and the people who work at the Chateau." In these decorative gardens, therefore, form took priority over function, and the utility requirement was relegated to history.

Thus, the formal, or "traditional herb garden' is a tradition that was developed with the onset of the ornamental garden in the 16th to 17th centuries, not in medieval times, as some believe (Leach, 1995).Thisideal is still touted bygardenretailers to lureusinto their establishments (as if we needmuch encouragement!).The reality is that herb gardens, as utility spaces, were a thing apart from contemporary gardens built for relaxation or ornamental display. Utility remained paramount during the middle ages and into the Renaissance and we must keep this in mind if we want to more accurately re-create medieval and Renaissanceherb gardens.

This is not to say we must emulate the tiny cabbage garden of the first saintly recluse (although my first herb garden was set in a sunny postage-stamp sized patch next to my back door, and provided me with rosemary, basil, and an unending supply of

Editor'sNote:OnceagainwehavechosentoreprintaselectionfromTheHerbaristtohonorthememory ofaSocietymemberwhoshared hisencyclopedicherbalknowledgewithmembers.Fromtaxonomic clarificationstobiochemicalexplanationsofherbalfragrancestohisloveofbittersandblack-flowering plantstoestablishingandoverseeingtheClaudeE.PhillipsHerbariumatDelawareStateUniversity,Dr. Tucker(Art)sparkedourownherbalstudiesandpassions.FormoreinformationaboutDr.Tucker,seeThe HerbSocietyofAmericaFall2019Newsletter(www.herbsociety.org/members-only).

Arthur 0. Tucker, III, PhD

Reprinted from The Herbarist, No. 51, 1985

ThreespeciesofLavandulaaremostcommonlyencountered incommercialcultivationandtheherbtrade:truelavender(or, simply.lavender).spikelavender(or,simply.spike),andlavandin. Lavandinisahybridoflavenderxspike.

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Likemany,Margaret"Peg"Deppehasbeenanavidgardenersinceshe discovereddirtasachild.Herundergraduateplantbiologycoursework,includingbotanyandhomehorticulture,fueled aninterestingardeninghistory.InturnPeg'scuriosityandherhusband'srequestfor"afewculinaryherbs"ultimately promptedtheconstructionofagardeninformedby9thcenturymonasticplans.Whatalsogrewwasthisresearch projectandcontributiontoTheHerbarist!PeghasbeenamemberatlargeintheCentralDistrictsince2018.

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isamemberatlargelivingintheAdirondacks.HerbooksincludeHerbsinBloom,Living WithHerbs,GardensofUse&Delight,andmostrecentlySeedsofTranscendence:UnderstandingtheHebrewBibleThrough Plants.SheisafrequentcontributortoTheHerbarist.

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hasbeenamemberoftheWesternReserveUnitfortwenty-threeyearsandhasbeentheirArt Chairsince2008.ShehasproducedtheartworkfortheirHerbaristadandmanyotherprojectsincludingtheirHerbFair advertisingposter.ShestudiedartatUrsulineCollegeanddisplaysherworklocally.Sheusuallypaintsinwatercolorand utilizesavarietyofsubjects.

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isalifememberofTheHerbSocietyofAmerica.In2010TheresareceivedTheSociety's NancyPutnamHowardAwardforExcellenceinHorticulture.HercareerandinterestinherbsbeganattheMinnesota LandscapeArboretum.Sheandherhusband,Jim,foundedandoperatedShadyAcresHerbFarm.Sherecentlywrote andpublishedabook,BeyondRosemary,BasilandThyme,sharingmoreherbalgrowingtipsandstories.

Painted by Maggie Limburg Recipient of the Joanna McQuail Award for the Artistic Use of Herbs

Vi s it o ur e v e nts i n H o uston:

He r b Fair – first Saturday in N ovember

H e r b D ay – last Saturday in Apr il

J o i n us a t mo nt hly me e t ings:

2nd T uesday d ay m eeting

3 rd Wednesday n ig ht m eeting

De t a ils: www. herbsoci ety -st u.org

Co

The Herb Society of

Our gardens are GreenBridgesTM and Monarch Way Station certified.

The Texas Thyme Unit is a 501(c)3 non-profit, whose mission it is to promote the knowledge, use and delight of herbs through educational programs, research, and sharing the experience with the community.

RAE McKIMM

Thank You!

DEDICATION YEARS OF

LOVE YOUR ,

HSA FRIENDS

Central Ohio Unit of The Herb Society of America

We cordially invite you to visit our Herb Garden at Inniswood Metro Gardens

940 South Hempstead Road

Westerville, Ohio

Our garden features a collection of over fifty different thymes in a delightful display of herbs

Grown both for their ornamental And herbal attributes.

www.centralohioherbsociety.org

Sunny Sundays

On Sunny Sunday afternoons from May through October Unit members are in the Herb Garden to answer garden visitors’ questions.

Annual Plant Sale

At Inniswood Metro Gardens the first weekend in May each year.

Congratulations to Unit member Caroline Jamison upon receiving the Golden Sage Award

As a 50 year member of HSA.

It’s About Thyme

Celebrating 45 Years

The Herb Society of America Wisconsin Unit

We encourage you to visit the herb gardens we support with grants: Old World Wisconsin and Boerner Botanical Gardens herb-society-wisconsin.org

1400 Culinary & decorative herbs, scented geraniums, perennials, trees & shrubs from around the world, colorful conifers, natives for pollinators.

(Peggy) Trevanion Winning the National HSA Certificate of Achievement Award

The Pennsylvania Heartland Unit, HSA

Reading, Pennsylvania

Celebrating our 35th Anniversary in 2020

Programs Open to the Public

October, November, January, February & March.

Herbal Study Groups: Botany/Horticulture

Herbal Products

Culinary Herbs

“Herbal Delights” Events

Visit our website for dates and details: paheartlandhsa.org

Annual Scholarship Awards

Unit Gardens

Penn State University, Janssen Conference Center, Reading PA

White Horse Tavern & Mouns Jones House, Historic Morlatton Village, Douglassville PA John Paul II Center for Special Learning, Reading PA

www.paheartlandhsa.org email: paheartlandhsa@gmail.com facebook.com/paheartlandhsa

The Herb Society of America

New Orleans Unit est. 1995

Encourages you to visit

The Ellen Biddle Shipman designed Walled Herb Garden at Longue Vue House and Gardens &

The Salvia Collection at the New Orleans Botanical Garden

To find out more about our project sites visit: www.longuevue.com www.neworleanscitypark.com/botanical -garden

Like and follow us on Facebook Herb Society of America – New Orleans Unit

The Herb Society of America

Ozark Unit

Mountain View, Arkansas

Headquartered at The Ozark Folk Center State Park

You are invited to visit us at The Folk Kids’ Mountain Garden

The Heritage Herb Garden

The Herb Harvest Fall Festival

FeaturingHSA’sAward-Winning Herbalists

The Spring Herbal Hike And Medicinal Herb Symposium

Annual Display Gardens at the Arkansas Flower and Garden Show

For schedule,events anddetails,pleasevisit: www.facebook.com/groups/HSA.Ozark ozarkfolkcenter.ticketleap.com

Greetings

To our Herb Society friends from the members of

The N or th Carolina Uni t

Honoring our dedicated HSA staff and board, the National Herb Garden staff and the HSA Notable Native Herb Committee.

We are maintaining the gardens around the 1780 McNairy House and Kitchen Dependency at the Greensboro History Museum.

Hospice House Herb Garden Herb Garden

Hospice House Herb Garden Herb Garden

Hospice House

Colonial Williamsburg Herb Garden Herb Garden