Rose Medicine

Recently published Herbal Goddess by Amy Jirsa explores the intersection of teas, potions, salves, food, yoga and twelve different kinds of herbs. I find this text inspiring as I consider what 14 herbs are most important to me. One of her prized herbs is Rosa (my chosen name in high school Spanish). I am thinking about rose as I am about to teach a yoga class in a rose garden in a couple days. I will need to arrive a couple hours early to explore all the varieties. Since the garden is maintained by Woodland Park Zoo I imagine they use fertilizers so I won't be harvesting anything for medicine.

Jirsa claims rose petals are sedative, antiseptic, antii-inflammatory and anti-parasitic. Perfect ingredient for a gardeners salve, for wounds, cuts, and abrasions while digging around in soil. If taken internally, rose lowers body temperature and is anti-spasmodic - muscle relaxing. Excellent summer medicine to keep you cool. Go figure it blooms into the summer, indeed nature provides us with what we need at the right time. I now have a whole new understanding of the benefit of creating a rose water spritzer.

Jirsa also talks about "rose magic", where she constructs rituals for bringing love into your life, mending estranged relationships or infertility, manifesting dreams and beauty, as well as inviting peace. I love the possibility for any individual to create their own rituals in relationship to rose, which has so much cultural association such as love, compassion and friendship.

I realize how I designed an entire yoga class for heart opening and breathing exercises, yet how important it will be just to meditate and be among the roses themselves, without thinking of them in terms of medicine, or asking for love to enter our lives. But simply to experience friendship with all the little flowers. How easy it is for me to wrap my head around the medicinal value of plants but forget about being in relation with them.

That being said, I will let rose be a medicine. Susun Weed reminds us many of the fruits we eat are in the rose family: strawberries, raspberries, apples, plums, almonds, all Rosaceae. (All cooling summer foods, which combined could make amazing desserts!) Weed also claims rose petals contain hormonal precursors, which relieve pituitary, menstrual and menopausal problems. This corroborates with Jirsa's book, where she says rose petals are an emmenagogue, uterine tonic and nervine. It's no wonder roses are almost universally considered "feminine". I'd really love to make rose petal honey soon.

New Years Cleanse

Most of us are familiar with the toxicity of sugar, alcohol, caffeine, gluten, and so forth. But is straight up avoiding them the answer?

In a book store I recently came across Purify Your Body by Nina J. Diamond (Crown Trade, 1997). In one chapter, Diamond reminds us of the natural toxins existing in herbs and foods we typically consider healthy. For examples hydrazines in uncooked mushrooms, aflatoxin in grains, nuts, oilseeds, turmeric and ginger, canavanine in alfalfa sprouts, lactose in peas, oxalic acid in the chenopods (spinach, beet greens, etc), goitrogins in the brassicas (kale, cabbage, broccoli, etc) and solanine in the nightshades. She lists herbs occasionally recommended for acute symptoms, and due to their potential toxicity, suggests avoiding them altogether: black and blue cohosh, senna, sassafras, pennyroyal, chaparral, goldenseal, ephedra, comfrey and even kombucha! She also discusses toxicity from overconsuming vitamins - in fact you can damage yourself by taking too much Vitamin E, A, D, B3, B6, K beta carotene, copper,selenium, iron and calcium. Everything we consume has the potential to help us or harm us. The buddhist approach of the "middle way" seems applicable here.

So I'm considering how to recreate balance in what I eat this new year, and for the heck of it I did a cleanse inspired by Diamond's "Everyday Antidotes". There were moments I felt yuck, however, these last couple days I've felt more spacious in my body, so my yoga practice has been improved, also I've felt more clarity in my senses. Twas all very fun, almost a game -- and why aren't I practicing this everyday?

1. Drink water (I added lemon)
2. Eat fiber ((fruits and veggies))
3. Take echinacea  (I enjoyed some tea)
4. Eat antioxidants ((colorful fruits and veggies))
5. Take dandelion (again, tea blend I have on stock)
6. Meditation & relaxation
7. Exercise (took a hot yoga class!)
8. Bodywork (lucky me I was able to schedule a massage with Katrina Koleto)
9. Detox skin (citrus rub, dry brush and of course shower)
10. Detox hair (apple cider vinegar before applying conditioner)
11. Essential oils (rose, yay)
12. Vibrational medicine (very grounding group chant I was able to participate in)

Additionally I went through all formerly harvested plants stored in paper bags. Pictured below are calendula and yarrow flowers. Nearly clear of all former projects so I may begin anew.

More articles about potential toxins in health foods (better compare notes!):

"How to Live Healthy in a  Toxic Environment" http://www.naturopathic.org/content.asp?contentid=474

"Eight Poisonous Foods We Commonly Eat" http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/photos/8-poisonous-foods-we-commonly-eat/eaters-beware

"Natural Toxins in Food" http://www.healthy-eating-politics.com/toxins-in-food.html

Peas & Roses

I've started pruning roses around our house, there are seven plants. Some are quite tall and unruly (after having been pruned sporadically in previous years) so it will take awhile.

As I go out into the yard I need to remember these points:
* Open the center of the plant for air circulation and light
* Make clean cuts ( at 45 degree angle)
* Clear out the broken, dying, diseased, dead wood
* Remove the weak twiggy branches thinner then a pencil
* Remove last year's foliage

Additionally I threw down some pea seeds! All along the fenceline where they'll have something easy to climb up on. It's sure to rain the next several days so perfect timing. It's the first time I actually got peas in by President's Day (perhaps I will be too early, we'll see) They are the Oregon Trail variety that are supposed to grow 30 inches tall, so hopefully the bamboo stakes will be tall and strong enough.

(Here is a link to a previous post I wrote about pruning roses back in March 2012: Above Golden Gardens.)

Roses & Strawberries, Happy Companions?

I needed somewhere to transplant the strawberries I'd removed to plant peas. They sat in a flat first near the garden, then near the recycling bin. I weeded around the roses and thought, why not? Strawberries may be shade-tolerant, and if nothing else provide a shallow mat.This is before I did any research.

The soil below the roses is very loose. Partially because they are planted on the top edge of a hill and the soil is sliding down.

I asked google if you can plant strawberries and roses together? Gardenweb forum says strawberries like slightly acidic soil and partial shade - which the 20-year old rose plants can provide. And strawberries are aggressive rooters - which the old rose plants will be able to handle with no effort. Yet Gardening Channel says strawberries require 6-10 hours of direct sun. They also say not to grow strawberries where roses once were (along with nightshades and raspberries) to avoid sharing diseases. They don't specify what those diseases are.

Well, the deed has been done. Now I will watch the plants develop. See if the flowers become berries. See if the leaves turn yellow or mottled brown. Fun & games.

Trying not to fool around this April...

Yesterday at a baby shower my aunt gave me some resources from her Master Gardner's binder. Perhaps outdated but I'm totally grateful and excited to review them starting now. I will put these in the "Garden Club" binder I'm maintaining at work for the kids. The first document presents information on propagating herbaceous plants from cuttings. * She lives out in Maltby, WA and I visited her home once. She has a thriving garden there. My stepmom and I recieved some herb cuttings.  Thank you for the handwritten note inviting me back to your home, on the cute stationary with flowers, watering can, with a bird perched on its handle. So good.

It's the first day of April, and the kale, asian greens, catnip and sage have been in the ground now for some time. We had a good amount of rain all week  and today is finally sunny. Besides the artichoke, all the plants are looking nourished and happy.

(Catnip! My stepmom asked me why I'm growing it. I've thought about this a little and now believe it's to attract this one particular cat I saw poking around last summer with a beautiful white coat. Come back!)

(Red and golden sage! This woman I went to the plant sale with asked me why I'm growing it and I might as well tell you, it's for biscuits and gravy.)

The next project is to take all the rose cuttings and stick em around the property. I cleared out ivy and need to continue clearing out weeds within the cascading beds, because that will be the best place. Therefore they won't be traveling far from the mother plant. Seems appropriate.

By the way here is one of the mother rose plants 2 weeks after pruning. Do you see the changes??

Ok, ok, it's the differences are subtle... I just have to prove to my roommate I didn't mess up the pruning job... lol.

Bud Union

Went to seminar at Swanson's Nursery this AM regarding rose care. I have left with some excellent handouts and inspiration for loving the roses around this property better. Terri Hyat has convinced me that if I give them enough love I can watch them produce a couple hundred flowers over the upcoming season. I do not even know what varieties these are, nor does Dita, but I now have a better understanding for classification. There are shrub roses in the back, which are bushy, lower growing, which are apparently easy to care for. Honestly I haven't attended to them once since I've moved in. There are Grandiflora (a cross between Hybrid Teas and Floribundas) right outside my window, which I have harvested from and guided into dormancy. They grew to be over 5 feet this year, and produced large, full single and cluster flowers well into October. There is a climber rose plant, that leapt over the stone steps down the side of the house, and culminated in lot's of rose hips. I harvested them too late, though, so didn't get much from that.

Right outside my window...

There is some lush foliage...

Some of it's diseased and needs to be trimmed, but the buds are pushing their way forth. The roses are waking up and I'm getting excited to prune them soon. I believe the correct time to do this will be March 1st, when the moon is in ascent and in the constellation of Gemini (flower). Why not? It also happens to be my father's bday that day, so I'll let him know I pruned the roses.

Terri said if I do everything right I will have more beauty than last year, so I guess that means I have something to look foward to.