GARDENER’S GUIDE Expert Paul Hervey-Brookes on

An ESSENCE of BALM

Award-winning garden designer Paul Hervey-Brookes explains how the humble Lemon Balm plant influenced rulers of Europe, and how it could help you this spring

Top to bottom: Lemon Balm growing alongside herbs in planters; garden designer and expert, Paul Hervey-Brookes

Spring always heralds fresh and abundant growth in the garden. No other time of year gives such such a verdant and rapid re-clothing of the garden than the months of spring. Flowers bloom and fruits such as strawberries begin to set. For those who worked hard sowing carrots, radish and lettuce in March, the  rst home-grown salad crops of the year will be a tasty reward.

All this growth means work, weeding, cutting back alongside the little jobs that winter did not allow to be completed, and that’s before you mow the lawn. It is a good job that the garden can o er both the exercise – with its associated muscle aches – and the cure.

 e humble Lemon Balm, a perennial herbaceous plant with rich, lemon-scented foliage could be the answer to gardeners’ prayers. Not only does it have the capacity to relieve aches and pains, but across Europe signs of its in uence on history can be seen in almost every country. Native to southern Europe, its slow spread across the continent and to England was complete by the mid-Mediaeval period. Melissa o cianalis is highly attractive to bees and it is from the Greek for ‘bee’ that its Latin name is derived.  e most commonly used names are either Lemon Balm or Sweet Balm, both coming from an abbreviation of Balsam. One of its oldest reputed properties is as a restorative and elixir of life, which is not bad for a humble

easy-to-care-for perennial plant. Paracelsus, a Swiss-born physician, alchemist and astrologer of high repute during the German Renaissance period, believed it would ‘completely revivify man’ and it was often used in treatments of related to the nervous system. In the London Dispensary Medical Journal of 1696 it says: ‘An essence of balm, given in canary wine, every morning will renew youth, strengthen the brain, relieve languishing nature and prevent baldness’. John Evelyn, a famous English diarist and gardener in the mid 1600s, believed it to be an aid to strengthening memory and ‘chasing away melancholy’.

Llewelyn, Prince of Glamorgan who ruled

Wales in the late 1170s reputedly lived until he was 108 and breakfasted on sweet balm tea, as did Mary

Stuart’s Chamberlain, John Hussey 1st Baron Sleaford who reportedly lived until he was 116.

Carmelite water, of which balm was the chief ingredient, was drunk by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, daily. Carmelite water was crafted originally in the 14th century by nuns at the Abbey of St Just as a tonic for the ailing French King Charles V. It can be made at home or purchased and is a mixture of spirit of balm, lemon peel, angelica root, and nutmeg. John Gerard, author of the famous Gerard’s Herbal  rst published in 1597 and Dioscorides the greek physician author of Materia Medica, written between 50 and 70 BCE, both stated that it helps in the healing of wounds. Pliny wrote that ‘balm, being applied, doth close up wounds without any peril or in ammation’, and this is now recognised by modern science since the balsamic oils of aromatic plants are used to make surgical dressings.

Lemon balm will propagate readily from seed and cuttings taken in late spring through to early summer. It is possible to sow the seed ripe, as in fresh seed collected in autumn and sown direct into seed trays left outside in a sheltered spot.

I tend to grow the plain green leaved plant, Melissa o cinalis and Melissa o cinalis ‘Aurea’ as this has a milder  avour and suits being used in salads. Each leaf is irregularly splashed with bright drops of golden sunshine-like colour. However, both the variegated form and pure golden, or yellow form, tend to su er from the harsh mid-day sun so o er them partial shade or you will end up with brown miserable plants. Historically, Melissa was always grown near bees and not just because of its attractiveness in terms

Clockwise, from left: Strawberries begin to set in early Spring; Lemon Balm can be added to bath water as an essential oil, perfect for curing aches and pains

of its  owers. Gerard explained that, ‘It is pro tably planted where bees are kept.  e hives of bees being rubbed with the leaves of bawme, causeth the bees to keep together, and casueth others to come with them’. Pliny echoes this theory by stating, ‘When they strayed away they do  nd their way home by it’.

Apart from drinking teas made with it and eating its leaves, perhaps the easiest use for gardeners is to collect stems of lemon balm in a bunch, tie them and hang under a hot tap, which makes for a wonderfully relaxing bath. As the hot water runs over the leaves, essential oils are released which have a relaxing e ect on aches and pains. Of course if you don’t have space to grow one of these plants but now fancy a steamy lemonscented relaxing bath then you can get a very similar e ect with good quality cold-pressed essential oil. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this story for me as a gardener and someone who likes to travel is that when we travel to new countries we see the footprints of great rulers, religious  gures and patrons of the arts, all thanks to their immense endeavours living a kind of immortality through the great buildings and history they have left. Plants are so often overlooked but conjure up the most fascinating histories. We can still touch, smell, taste and reward our senses with them in exactly the same way as Dioscorides would have nearly 2000 years ago.

FIVE 5-MINUTE SPRING JOBS

1. If you grow old heritage variety roses now is the time to tie them in with supports to ensure the heavy flowers do not snap stems or bruise under spring showers.

2. Mulch in-between soft fruit plants such as raspberries, gooseberries and strawberries to reduce pest damage and weeding throughout the summer.

3. Up until the end of May we can get cold nights and frosts. Be vigilant and ensure you have fleece or lightweight covers for tender vegetable plants, tender annuals and larger plants such as tree ferns to keep the risk of stunted growth to a minimum.

4. Cut back the faded flowering heads of daffodils and tulips before they have a chance to set seed. This will ensure all of the strength is returned to the bulb for next year. Do not be tempted to cut the foliage off as this will reduce flowering next year.

5. If you grow a lot of houseplants then April and May are ideal months to take them outside for the day, repot them into larger containers and give them a good wash. Just remember not to leave them outside overnight.