On some of the milder days it’s time to prune those fruit
trees. I forgot last week to mention
that it’s National Cherry Month, why its cherry month in February is hard to
figure. But you may want to get out that
pile of garden catalogs and order a cherry tree or two. Cherries have all kinds of health benefits and
if you can beat the birds to them, they make some great pies, desserts and
jellies. Cherries also make wonderful
spring flowering landscape trees.
This week’s musings reflect on the fact that Valentine’s Day
is Thursday.
A rose is a rose
Roses are one of the favored gift offerings on Valentine’s
Day. Red roses are said to be a symbol
of romantic love, but a bouquet of red and white roses is said to be a symbol
of pure and true love- a combination of romantic and spiritual love. If you want to be just friends send yellow
roses. Friends with benefits should
send orange roses. Pink and lavender
roses are for innocent love, first love, roses conveying love to a child.
I have been writing about heirloom plants and if you have
been around as long as I have you may remember some of the old rose names from
your younger days. In the 1950’s the
breeding of roses entered a revival period and many backyard gardeners slaved
over a collection of tea roses. I say
slaved because these roses, while beautiful, were subject to many disease and
insect problems and required lots of attention.
My maternal grandfather was a rose collector. My grandmother favored irises, which she
liked to cross to create new varieties.
I loved to help her with this, carefully bagging certain iris after pollinizing
them, with the names of the parents on a little tag. But grandma’s irises were regulated to the
side yard and grandpa’s roses took center stage. In the front of the yard, where they could be
seen from the street, his rose garden was framed by bricks painted white. I could look down on the rose garden from my
second floor bedroom next door. In the
summer the smell of DDT, malathion and various other chemicals would waft up to
me whenever grandpa sprayed his roses.
My grandfather had a set of metal dies with letters on
them. These were hammered into strips of
aluminum to make the names of his roses and those tags tied onto the
plants. He added several new tea roses
or polyantha’s each year. The border of
our yards was marked by a prickly row of “Fairy”
shrub roses, I remember they were mostly the pink of the true Fairy but here
and there was a white small flowered rose.
Grandfather said they were there to keep us kids out of his real rose
garden.
‘Chrysler Imperial’
was one of the red tea roses I remember, it was introduced the year of my birth
and remains on the market today. The
rose ‘Peace’, a yellow-peach blend, debuted
in the 50’s and was a must have for most gardeners. My grandparents also had ‘Chicago Peace’, another pink. Another rose introduced in 1960 was ‘Tropicana’, the first orange hybrid tea
and I remember my grandfather showing it off to his garden club members. Other roses from the time were ‘Blaze’, the re-blooming red climber, ‘Blue
Moon’, one of the first lavender blues, Mister
Lincoln, a red tea, ‘Careless Love’
a pink, ‘Fragrant Cloud’ an orange-
red that is still a favorite of mine, and ‘Kings
Ransom’ a yellow.
One of the last roses in my grandfather’s garden, shortly
before a stroke brought an end to his gardening days was ‘ John F Kennedy’ a white rose.
My grandfather was head of the Democratic party in our area and had
actually met President Kennedy. One of
the roses I remember most vividly though, was an unnamed yellow climber that
was on the front fence and which is the backdrop for all of our family graduation
pictures. I have a piece of that rose in
my garden today.
Other interesting facts about roses: roses appeared in written literature early in
history, Greek scientist and writer Theophrastus was scientifically cataloging
roses about 300 B.C. There are written
records of officials chiding other officials in early Rome for allowing so many
rose gardens as to interfere with the planting of food crops. The first American nursery was opened by Robert
Prince in Flushing, Long Island, in 1737. In 1746 he advertised 1,600 varieties
of roses (as well as other plants) and counted as his customers many prominent
Americans including Thomas Jefferson
Slater’s Crimson China
rose was probably the first true red rose in Europe, introduced in the early
1800’s. Until then what was known as a
red rose in Europe was actually a deep rose pink color. It took many more years
before a red tea rose type rose existed. Bright,
true yellow roses did not exist until a mutation was found in a field in 1900.
(There were pale, cream yellow roses earlier.)
Orange color did not exist until the floribunda 'Independence', was introduced in 1951. A true blue rose has yet to be introduced
although there have been lavender and purple shades in roses for a long time.
Love is in the garden-or
the spice rack
Valentine’s Day is this week and you may be wondering what
kind of gift you could bring someone to make him or her love you more in many
senses of the word. Jewelry and flowers
may evoke warm feelings but some people are looking for something more, let’s
say, efficient.
Some of the earliest written herbals contain references to
plants that have aphrodisiac properties and potions that are said to bring true
love. Many think that chocolate is a
popular Valentines treat because it enhances sexual desire but modern science
has proven that chocolate doesn’t have an effect on actual sexual
performance. It does however affect the
pleasure areas of the brain and causes people to feel happier. And since desire is largely produced in the
brain bringing someone a box of chocolate isn’t a waste of time, not only does
it show you care but it makes the recipient happy. Interestingly in Japan women send chocolate
to men on Valentine’s Day. Just don’t
mention to your love that Aztec prostitutes were paid in cacao beans.
However there are some common plants, (herbs) that you may
have in the house or yard that do enhance desire and sexual performance. The
scientific community has been exploring plant pharmaceuticals intensively
lately and there is great interest in finding a substitute for the “little blue
pill” which has so many deadly side effects.
So if you want your Valentine to love you more in every way you may want
to try some of these plants that recent science has confirmed could enhance
your love life.
Nutmeg,(
Myristica fragrans) has long been used in magic love potions and since a
chemical found in nutmeg, myristicin, is used to produce the illegal street
drug ecstasy it was no wonder that animal tests found that it enhanced male
sexual performance. Studies on females
have not been done but folklore and common practice suggest that is also
effective on females. Mace is another
spice from the same plant and is said to have similar effects. In the amounts you would use in foods or
teas nutmeg would not be harmful or have bad side effects; however you can
overdose on the street drug and I don’t recommend it.
Both garlic and
garlic chives were found in animal studies to have aphrodisiac
effects. If you can find a way to slip
them into a Valentine meal you could improve your love life and your health
since garlic has many other health benefits.
Saffron, a spice
made from the sexual organs of a type of crocus (Crocus sativus) has also been
found to enhance sexual performance in animal studies. These studies typically use male animals and
an aqueous extract of saffron but herbal lore suggests use of the spice in
cooking is also helpful.
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| Lamb's Quarter leaves |
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| Lamb's Quarters flowering. |
Two common garden weeds have recently been evaluated for
their love enhancing abilities. Lambsquarters, (Chenopodium album) and Beggers ticks, Stick tights or Tickweed
(Bidens frondosa) have both been shown to have significant aphrodisiac abilities
in recent scientific studies. In animal
studies extracts of the herbs were used.
The seeds of lambsquarters are used in herbal remedies and were dried
and ground into flour by Native Americans.
The young greens are also eaten as a spinach substitute. The bark of the stems of Sticktight ( Bidens)
was the part used in studies. It could possibly be made into a tea.
Goji berry or
Wolfberry is being touted as the next wonder food and among its good properties
is apparently the ability to increase sexual hormones. Several garden catalogs are offering Goji
berry plants for sale and they are said to grow as far north as Zone 5. If you are in a hurry to obtain the benefits of
Goji there are many juices and other products on the market, probably in your
local store.
Common tea (Camellia
sinensis) had a marked aphrodisiac effect on rats. Perhaps that’s why the English preferred tea
as a drink. Tea has been used as a drink
for many centuries and it seems that if people were getting a love boost from
it that effect would be well known.
Maybe a little tea spiced with nutmeg would be an improvement.
Damiana is an
herb you can grow although it may be hard to find locally. It has proven aphrodisiac qualities. Dried leaves of damiana are smoked or made
into a tea. Read my article about it
here.
Other common plants that have some scientific validity as
aphrodisiacs include Maypops or
Passionfruit, (Passiflora incarnate),
panax ginsing, yohimbe, velvet
beans (Mucuna pruriens), and African
basil (Ocimum gratissimum).
If a stimulating massage oil is desired Ylang-ylang and
rosewood ( not rose) essential oil mixed with coconut oil is said to be very
exciting to women. Just smelling Ylang
ylang is said to increase sexual desire in women. Maybe you guys out there might want to dab it
behind your ears. (This hasn’t been
proven scientifically, it’s just folklore.)
If you decide to experiment with a love potion this
Valentine’s Day use a little caution as people can have an allergic reaction to
anything. It’s a good idea to tell a person what they are being fed. Many of these herbs would probably take days
of treatment to work and most studies used concentrated extracts that are hard
to duplicate at home. Still a little
imagination may work wonders as after all, love and desire are strongly seated
in the brain.
A sweet and nostalgic Valentine’s Day to you
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