The Herbarist 2020 Issue 85

Herbarist HSA Board of Directors AmySchiavone

President

Maryann Readal

Secretary

Gayle Engels

Botany & Horticulture Chair

Open

Gladys McKinney

Jen Munson

Pat Greathead

Open

RieSluder

Christine Moore

Vice President

Treasurer

Education Chair

Development Chair

Membership Chair

Nominating and Awards Chair Past President Honorary President

Membership Delegates Open

Central District

Kim Labash

Mid-Atlantic District

Pam Goetsch

Karen O'Brien

Great Lakes District

Northeast District

Bill Varney

South Central District

Linda Lange

West District

BetsySmith

Southeast District

Administrative Staff Laura Lee Martin

CherylSkibicki

Karen Kennedy Amy Dawson Amy Rogers

Executive Director

Development/ Membership Coordinator Education Coordinator

Archivist/Librarian Special Projects

The Herbarist Debbi Paterno SP Mount Printing

Publication Design, Debbi Paterno Graphic Design Printer

The Herbarist Committee Maryann Readal

LoisSutton, PhD

Jean Berry

Secretary Chair

Plant Hardiness: A Complex System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

By Barbara J. Williams The Ultimate Herb Grower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

By Joann Gardner Don't Lose Sight of the Herbs.

By Katherine Schlosser

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Who Were Those Plant Keepers?

Theresa Mieseler

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Herbs Go to War. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

By Judith Sumner, PhD Milkweed At The Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 The Herbarist, 1945 Herb Gardens in Medieval and Renaissance Europe . . . . . . 31

By Margaret A. Deppe, PhD Surprise Design Partners for a New Garden at an Old Farm . . . 36

By Bobbie Cyphers Lavender, Spike, and Lavandin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

By Arthur 0. Tucker, III, PhD Reprinted from The Herbarist, No. 51, 1985 Current and Historical Production and Use of Herbs by Ethnic and Migrant Communities in Greater Providence, Rhode Island. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

By John R. Taylor, PhD

Shirley Hercules

GayleSoutherland

A complete list of sponsors and underwriters may be found on page 52.

Barbara J. Williams Pat Greathead

Fundraising

The opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of The Society. Manuscripts, advertisements, comments, and letters to the editor may be sent to:

The Herbarist, The Herb Society of America 9019 K irtland-Chardon Rd., Kirtland, Ohio 44094 440.256.0514 www. herbsociety.org editorherbarist@gmail.com The Herbarist, No. 85 © The Herb Society of America

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 of The Herb Society of America not to advise or recommend herbs for medicinal or health use. This information is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as a recommendation or an endorsement of any particular medical or health treatment. Please consult a health care provider before pursuing any herbal treatments.

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Theresa Mieseler

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n the early years of operating 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 was looking for new plants to grow, techniques to propagate them, and learn about any special care they may need. Clients wanted new plants they could purchase for their gardens. For many years that is what I did along with the routine operations of running the business that my husband, Jim, and I founded: Shady Acres Herb Farm.

There was so much to discover, and I was learning as much as I possibly could about the herbs. 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 grow herbs for color and design in the garden, for flavor in cooking, for health, and for aroma in potpourri. Another purpose is to show them off to friends coming to my home.

We stroll through the gardens, touch the leaves, and inhale.

It is a pleasure for me to see them smile and enjoy the fragrances that I love to share.

From these strolls I realized I had stories about the people who discovered some of these plants. Some were friends and 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 their recipes with me, too.

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

Angelica gigas {Korean Angelica) I had been growing this spectacular angelica for a number 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 around the tops of the flowers. It is a photogenic herb that is 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't touch it makes me very happy since there are herds 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 was hosting a Japanese friend, Toshio, on his first trip 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

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HERB GARDENS IN MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE EUROPE During the middle ages, monastic properties and noble estates alike dedicated spaces for orchards, which doubled as cemeteries for senior ranking churchmen and recreation spaces for the nobility.

Space was also devoted to coney-garths (for housing rabbits for the table, baffling to modern gardeners, 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 and man­ made disasters made a profound impact on utility gardening.

Figuratively and literally, gardening came into its own following the arrival of the Black Death in the mid-14th century. With the loss of 30-60% of the population throughout Europe, human labor became more valuable and some land became available to yeomen farmers for private ownership (Fearnley-Whittingstall, 2003). With the marriage ofHenry Tudor to Elizabeth ofYork in 1486, the "War of the Roses" came to an end, ushering in a period of increased stability in England.

WhenHenry's surviving heir,Henry VIII, dissolved the Catholic 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 whom were able to accrue wealth to a level that rivaled members of the nobility. Many of the new bourgeois sought the finer things in 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 display garden. While utility gardens were still necessary, they were relegated to the back of the estate or to acreage away from the house.

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 that were being used in 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. T he head of the household could prepare more costly substances such as rosewater, which was used as perfume, medicine, a cooking ingredient, and air freshener, Wool and silk tapestry portraying rather than purchasing them from a a gentleman in a rose garden, physician.

South Netherlandish 14S0- 55 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

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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 and exotic species, 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-known example of this phenomenon was the arrival of the tulip from the Ottoman empire in the 1550s. Tulips found a champion in French botanist Charles de 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 the bulb growing capital of the world (Dash, 1999).

William Lawson aimed his 1617 garden book, The Country Housewife's Garden, at those recently gentrified English ladies who were laying out their garden 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 were worthy 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 spectacular royal potager during the last quarter of the 17th century.

For the average gardener, the harvesting 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).This ideal is still touted by garden retailers to lure us into their establishments (as if we need much 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 Renaissance herb 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

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SURPRISE DESIGN PARTNERS FOR A NEW GARDEN AT AN OLD FARM

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Editor's Note: Once again we have chosen to reprint a selectionfrom The Herbarist to honor the memory of a Society member who shared his encyclopedic herbal knowledge with members. From taxonomic clarifications to biochemical explanations of herbalfragrances to his love of bitters and black-flowering plants to establishing and overseeing the Claude E. Phillips Herbarium at Delaware State University, Dr. Tucker (Art) sparked our own herbal studies and passions. For more information about Dr. Tucker, see The Herb Society of America Fall 2019 Newsletter (www.herbsociety.org/members-only).

Arthur 0. Tucker, III, PhD Reprinted from The Herbarist, No. 51, 1985

Three species of Lavandula are most commonly encountered in commercial cultivation and the herb trade: true lavender (or, simply. lavender). spike lavender (or, simply. spike), and lavandin.

Lavandin is a hybrid of lavender x spike.

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Herbarist fl3oMw t:{jf� is a horticulturist with more than thirty years' experience. Bobbie is a member at large of the Southeast District ofThe Herb Society of America. She ownedThe Herb of Grace Nursery, Shop, Gardens, andTearoom

in Spring Creek, NC, for many years. From her old farm in the foothills of East Tennessee called Garden in a Wood, she teaches and writes about gardening and nature. Her articles and essays have appeared in publications such as Tennessee Gardener, Mississippi Gardener, GreenPrints, and Heirloom Gardener.

GJrl� flJeppe, fJ1,£/) Like many, Margaret "Peg" Deppe has been an avid gardener since she

discovered dirt as a child. Her undergraduate plant biology coursework, including botany and home horticulture, fueled an interest in gardening history. In turn Peg's curiosity and her husband's request for "a few culinary herbs" ultimately prompted the construction of a garden informed by 9th century monastic plans. What also grew was this research project and contribution to The Herbarist! Peg has been a member at large in the Central District since 2018.

J{2fjJ(J(J ��

is a member at large living in the Adirondacks. Her books include Herbs in Bloom, Living With Herbs, Gardens ofUse & Delight, and most recently Seeds ofTranscendence: Understanding the Hebrew Bible Through

Plants. She is a frequent contributor to The Herbarist.

� � has been a member of the Western Reserve Unit for twenty-three years and has been their Art Chair since 2008. She has produced the artwork for their Herbarist ad and many other projects including their Herb Fair advertising poster. She studied art at Ursuline College and displays her work locally. She usually paints in watercolor and utilizes a variety of subjects.

� GJrl� is a life member ofThe Herb Society of America. In 2010Theresa receivedThe Society's Nancy Putnam Howard Award for Excellence in Horticulture. Her career and interest in herbs began at the Minnesota

Landscape Arboretum. She and her husband, Jim, founded and operated Shady Acres Herb Farm. She recently wrote and published a book, Beyond Rosemary, Basil and Thyme, sharing more herbal growing tips and stories.

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�HERBARIST

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frozen in

� ,I'.

Sustainably grown culinary and medicinal herbs, harvested at their peak and freeze dried to perfection.

CONTACT US 920-470-3018 info@frozeninthymeherbs.com

Member for 82 years

In the summertime we host our community

Garden Days

in the beautiful historical herb garden at the home of one of our country’s Founding Fathers.

The John Jay Homestead New York Historic Site at Katonah, New York

herbsocietyny@gmail.com New York Unit Of The Herb Society Of America

‘Summer Saturdays in the Herb Garden’.

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

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The Virginia

OF THE HER B SOCIET Y OF A MER ICA

invites you to visit the herb gardens we designed, planted & help maintain

JOHN MARSHALL HOUSE

MCGUIRE VA MEDICAL CENTER POLYTRAUMA REHABILITATION CENTER

HENRICUS HISTORICAL PARK

, MAYMONT S “HERBS GALORE & MORE!”

1201 BROAD ROCK ROAD • RICHMOND, VA

818 EAST MARSHALL STREET • RICHMOND, VA

251 HENRICUS PARK ROAD • CHESTER,VA

1700 HAMPTON STREET • RICHMOND, VA

Visit our booth at Maymont’s Herbs Galore & More!

This popular herb festival is Virginia’s largest and oldest herbal event, held the last Saturday of April each year.

Our unit specializes in peppers,

over fifty different varieties!

T H E V I RGI N I A COM MON W E A LT H U N I T H A S BE E N A U N I T OF T H E H E R B SOCI ET Y OF A M E R ICA SI NCE 1987 Issue 85 2020

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The South Texas Unit

Proud member of The Herb Society of America since 1968 Visit our events in Houston: Herb Fair – first Saturday in November Herb Day – last Saturday in April

Join us at monthly meetings: 2nd Tuesday day meeting 3rd Wednesday night meeting

Details: www.herbsociety-stu.org Awarding The HSA-STU Madalene Hill Scholarship to Texas College students studying horticulture

Comfrey for healing Symphytum officinale

THE PHILADELPHIA UNIT Invites you to visit our gardens And to attend our 82nd Annual Herb Sale

May 13, 2021

At Historic Yellow Springs Chester Springs, PA

Our Gardens: The Fragrant Garden Tyler Arboretum M e di a, P A

18th Century Medicinal Garden Historic Yellow Springs Chester Springs, PA Check us out at: www.hsaphiladelphia.org

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Lavender Garden Welkinweir Pottstown , PA

HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS

T e x a s Th y m e Un i t

The Herb Society of America

Welcome to our unit's herb garden, a destination for pollinators and people and a home for the herbs we love.

Our Ella Ruth Garden, Children's Sensory Garden, and Memorial Rose Garden are located at the Wynne Home Arts Center in Huntsville, TX.

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. www.facebook.com/texas thymeunit |

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www.texasthymeunit.org

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RAE McKIMM HSA PRESIDENT 2016-2018

Thank You! FOR YOUR DEDICATION AND FOR 10 YEARS OF SERVICE ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS! LOVE YOUR,

HSA FRIENDS

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Donovan Pfaff, Agent (608) 328-4235

CA Insurance License # 0C59133 Insurance Representative of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), Springfield, MA 01111-0001, and its affiliated US insurance companies. Registered Representative of and securities, investment advisory and financial planning services offered through MML Investors Services, LLC, Member SIPC and a MassMutual subsidiary. 525 Junction Road Suite 8100 North Tower Madison WI 53717 (608) 829-0015. Local sales agencies are not subsidiaries of MassMutual or its affiliated companies. CRN202109-253898

I n recogn ition

of 50 years with The Herb Society of America we are honored to have

Caroline Jamison Celebrate Herbs

as a Golden Sage recipient of our Delaware County Unit and our community.

CongratulaƟons Caroline

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40 years at Cranbrook Gardens The Herb Society of America Southern Michigan Unit hsasmu.org hsasmu@gmail.com

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Central Ohio Unit of The Herb Society of America

Sunny Sundays

We cordially invite you to visit our Herb Garden at Inniswood Metro Gardens 940 South Hempstead Road Westerville, Ohio

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

Our garden features a collection of Annual Plant Sale

over fifty different thymes in

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

a delightful display of herbs Grown both for their ornamental And herbal attributes.

It’s About Thyme www.centralohioherbsociety.org

Congratulations to Unit member Caroline Jamison upon receiving the Golden Sage Award As a 50 year member of HSA.

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The Herb Society of America, Pioneer Unit

Howdy from Deep in the Heart of Texas!

Supporting the Herb Gardens at Festival Hill in Round Top

Supporting the Brenham Elementary Sensory Garden

P.O. Box 23 Round Top, TX 78954 www.herbsocietypioneer.org www.facebook.com/PioneerHSA

25th Annual Herbal Forum at Round Top (second attempt)

March 19 & 20, 2021

In Memory of Madalene Hill Pioneer Unit Member 1994-2009

For information on the Herbal Forum visit herbsocietypioneer.org, festivalhill.org, or call 979-249-3129

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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

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

Download our Handbook/Catalog! www.sandymushherbs.com or send $5.00 to: Sandy Mush Herb Nursery Dept. HSA 316 Surrett Cove Rd Leicester, NC 28748-5517

The Western PA Unit www.westernpahsa.org

Celebrating our member Margaret (Peggy) Trevanion Winning the National HSA Certificate of Achievement Award

2020

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Celebrating Our 40th Anniversary of Designing and Maintaining The Elizabethan Garden Mellon Park, Pittsburgh, PA Our Garden Quilt

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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

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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 Featuring HSA’s Award-Winning Herbalists

The Spring Herbal Hike And Medicinal Herb Symposium

Annual Display Gardens at the

Arkansas Flower and Garden Show For schedule, events and details, please visit: www.facebook.com/groups/HSA.Ozark ozarkfolkcenter.ticketleap.com

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Greetings To our Herb Society friends from the members of

The North Carolina Unit 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.

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Hospice House Hospice House Herb Garden Herb Garden

Hospice House Herb Garden

Colonial Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg Herb Garden Herb Garden

Colonial Williamsburg Herb Garden

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THE NEW ENGLAND UNIT OF THE HERB SOCIETY OF AMERICA Herbs for Use and for Delight! –John Parkinson

The Gardens at Elm Bank, Wellesley, MA, The New England Unit’s Teaching Herb Garden www.neuhsa.org

Look for us online

facebook.com/NewEnglandUnit

Aromatic Spice Blends HANDCRAFTED IN SUNNY CALIFORNIA Whether you're a beginning cook or a talented foodie, Spice Craze™ will inspire you with unique ingredients, flavorful blends, and useful kitchen tools that happen to be beautiful too.

Find Us at www.spicecraze.com Follow Us on Social Media @spicecraze and #getspicywithus Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter

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Come and celebrate all things herbal in beautiful Baton Rouge

ISBN 9780997924244

9 780997 924244

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