Part of belladonna bed

I am still getting my plants ready for winter and have a bunch of pots to take inside this year. I usually avoid having indoor plants because my house is very small and I have a number of cats who are on the clumsy side. This year, though, I decided I did want some aromatic plants in my work room: dittany of Crete, rose geranium, and a lavender or two. Unfortunately, my mandrake pots are sitting there doing nothing on account of squirrels deciding to rescue the baby roots from their pots. Maybe the squirrels had some serious cursing to do–like on my neighbor’s cats, who keep stalking them.:) But I have a whole bunch of white mandrake seeds ready to put into pots that I started soaking on Samhain.

This year was not the most successful garden I’ve ever had, what with the really rough weather, including hail a couple times, torrential rains, gale-force winds, extreme heat, just the whole gamut of global warming that some would like to pretend doesn’t exist. Well, it exists in my garden–I can tell by the increase in planting zones. I can get away with growing more warmth-loving plants than I could in the past. I did get some nice food plants started this year, like the Cornelian cherry trees, and more currants and gooseberries. And I collected various sorts of seeds to sell through my shop–and a small amount of herbs, such as some black nightshade that volunteered in the shade patch and the mugwort. I also got a good deal of spearmint and lemon balm and oregano and such for my own kitchen. I very much enjoyed harvesting and drying the herbs, and they are so much superior to even the best quality I can buy, that I decided I would grow more for harvest and sale for next year. I am dealing with a lot of shade and tree roots in this yard, and although that is not a very good situation for producing annual food plants, it is fine for fruiting shrubs like currants and gooseberries, which I have in place already, and for many herbs. They are often much tougher than the typical veggie, which is a more coddled critter.

So the lineup for next year, outside of the ever popular mandrakes, is:

1. Belladonna. I created an entire bed just for belladonna plants this year, so it will be all ready for the babies come spring. There are only three of them in there now. I also want to grow the Indian belladonna there (Atropa acuminata), which can have yellow flowers instead of brown (although when I’ve grown it in the past, they were indeed brown–it was just a lot easier to germinate). I’ve had problems finding suppliers of this herb, and whenever I have found one, they end up disappearing. I didn’t want to have to grow it myself because I was experimenting with a lot of food plants, but now they are going to have their own place.

2. Various henbanes. I’ve grown black, white, and golden henbane in the past. I still have a few seeds of the golden left (the flowers are bright yellow with a deep purple patch), and I will pick up some white henbane seeds. These plants will go in one of my two sunny patches in the back, next to the artemisia patch.

3. Black nightshade. This plant and I have had a rocky relationship for the past couple of years. This year, although I did not plant them, they volunteered very nicely all throughout the shade patch, where I was experimenting with growing food plants (mostly bush beans, which did okay but nothing to write home about). The shade patch will be theirs next year, because they have proven to me that they are worth growing in comparison to the bush beans–you can’t beat self-planting. And the herb I have harvested from the black nightshade I grew myself is so superior to the herb I can buy that I just can’t not grow it. Plus I finally figured out a way to dry the berries with the herb without them turning into glop. This year I harvested only a few ounces from those volunteers, but next year I expect to have much more. And I hope to learn from this plant. I know it has something to teach me, something important, because it keeps coming back no matter how badly I treat it. So yes, lots of black nightshade next year.

4. Datura. I grew only a few unmatta (Datura fastuosa) plants this year because I had a ton of seeds of other daturas left from the previous year (and datura seeds stay good for many years as long as they are stored properly). It seems that no matter what I do, I just do not have a long enough season for the unmatta. Although I started them inside and they got full sun, supplemental water, fertilizer, the whole nine yards, the seed pods did not have time to ripen. So I will go back to focusing on the toloache and jimsonweed. I think I will offer small amounts of these as herbs for magic as well, like in 10g amounts. I DON’T want to attract people who are into legal highs. There are a few medieval incense recipes for magic that require datura, though, and I have been wanting to construct J.K. Huysman’s Black Mass incense for a long time (rue, henbane, jimsonweed, and myrrh). This is from his novel La Bas (1891).

5. Foxglove. I haven’t grown this in this place, but I had a nice big patch in my last place, and how the bumblebees loved those plants! I don’t need to grow these for seeds, because it’s easily obtainable, but I would like to offer this plant in small amounts and frankly, I just like the flowers. I’ll be growing the regular purple as well as the white. I’ll probably put these in my front yard, where all the sun is, since most people would not recognize them as a “weed.”

6.  Rowan. I’m going to try germinating a bunch of rowan seeds this winter. I never have as much luck with tree seeds as I do with perennials, but I sure would like to have a couple seed-grown rowan trees. They are darned expensive to buy as small trees locally ($80 last time I found one). Hybrids are less, but I want the species. These will be in pots, since they prefer acidic soil and mine is limey.

7. Blackthorn. Yep, I will be trying these again. In the past I’ve gotten retail packets of blackthorn seeds from a single source in the UK but have not had luck germinating them. I found another source and will try those. Plus I can buy wholesale quantities from them and offer them through the shop, but eventually it would be great to have a couple of these plants. I would like to work with the berries.

8. Rue. Here’s another plant where the quality of the dried herb I can get is not that great. I was getting it from a small grower and that stuff was wonderful, but they decided not to grow it anymore. The stuff I can get now is all chopped up and while it’s not horrible, it’s not that good, either. I like to get herbs more whole. It prevents adulteration and you just get a more powerful herb, because every time a leaf is cut, oxidation occurs at the cut edges. There’s even an alchemist, Johann Isaak Hollandus (1570-1610), who recommends against cutting or crushing herbs when making alchemical products because of how much is lost to the air or by beating the herb. So a whole herb is more potent. Also, I want to keep people’s dogs off my front yard, and dogs and cats don’t like rue, so it will be lining the front walk, together with some innocuous marigold. This will allow me to harvest my own rue herb and rue seeds.

9. Elfwort. I have a couple of these growing in my back yard, but it has become so shady back there that they’re struggling, so I will put them in the front. Typically it’s the root that is sold for this herb, but I want to grow it for the seeds. They can be hard to come by. Also, the sun-wheel flowers are very cheerful.

10. Woad. I have two reasons for growing this plant–easier access to the seeds, and I’d like to try processing the herb for woad dye. This needs the sun and is presentable and not baneful, so it will go in the front. Yes, I know all about how it is evil and invasive; so are we.

11. Weld.  Another one I want to grow for the seeds, and another sun-lover that will be in the front.

12. Wild tobacco. I grow this every year, partly to harvest a small amount of seeds to supplement the ones I buy but mostly just to honor the spirits who enjoy it, like Papa Legba. And I mean, it’s the quintessential shamanic herb. How can I in good conscience NOT grow it?

13. White heather. I’ve been meaning to grow white heather for years, but it has always been a low priority since where I am, the soil tends to be sweet rather than sour, which is what this plant needs. But I’m going to give a couple of plants a try, even if it is in big pots. I would like to be able to harvest white heather sprigs, as they are considered especially good charms. It would also be great to collect seeds from such plants, although I don’t know if they would actually produce white heather plants. Probably a mix of the species lavender and white.

14. Devil’s shoe string. I got some seeds from this, but they can take two years to germinate. What the hey, I will give it a try. Even just one plant would probably supply all the herb I would need.

15.  Vervain. I have grown this now for a couple years. The plants are not that big, but wow, did they ever make seeds! So I am going to grow more of them to get some decent herb. I do sell this herb, but the only source that offers it has herb that is brown and ground almost to powder. I would like some that is more like a whole leaf, if possible. This is one I would grow en masse if I had the space for it because what’s available out there is just not that good quality and because I suspect that this herb has great magical potential.

16. Clary sage. I’ve been getting good harvests of clary sage seed just from volunteer seedlings started by three plants I grew a few years ago, but I will plant some more deliberately this coming year because I like the white variety. It would be great to get some herb to harvest from these plants, as it is wonderful for dream work and not readily available in commerce except mostly as a tincture.

17. Wild lettuce. This stuff has seeded itself so much all over my garden that I could not ever plant anything else again. It is everywhere. I should be able to harvest it for herb next year. I got a good harvest of seeds this year from just four plants, although it was messy to deal with the latex this plant produces.

18. Pokeweed. It can be very difficult to get seed for this plant, even though it will turn up growing through cracks in the sidewalk in a city. It’s surprisingly popular. I have one plant struggling along in a shady section, so I’d like to start a couple more to put in a brighter area and get seeds from.

19. Wild white and purple petunias. These are the ancestors of common petunias, and I love them. They are prolific seeders. I have been growing some in pots and some in the ground. I especially favor the wild white ones, Petunia axillaris, because its scent at night is so rich. I am sure this must have a tradition of magical use, but I have not been able to uncover anything. I am going to keep growing it until I get to know its spirit. It feels like a friendly plant. Not so much the purple ones. They have a weird smell.

20. Giant Chinese lanterns. I have not been able to get seeds of the giant variety for a while, only the regular size. Plant varieties go in and out of availability with seed wholesalers like teenage fads. I tried getting a small packet to grow my own last year, but it turned out they had none, so I will try again this year.

And that’s pretty much it. For my own self, I’ll be growing ground cherries, more currants and gooseberries, shallots in my neighbor’s sunny plot, a few snowpeas and pole beans, White Queen tomatoes (very creamy Victorian mater), and my own project just for the halibut, species roses from seeds. I have a now very large rose bush that I grew from seed I started about 5-6 years ago, and I think it’s time to move on to other species. Plus I will grow some more herbal teas, like more lemon balm, spearmint, chamomile, and some ones I haven’t tried growing, like New Jersey tea and bee balm.

Datura outpacing black nightshade

After taking some time to think it over, I went out today and began uprooting black nightshade plants that had grown in places other than where I planted them. For one thing, I  don’t want it taking over my entire yard. I have a lot of other herbs out there, and they need their growing space too. For another, I don’t like the way this plant has acted towards me and others. I am not sure whether I will even leave the species plant in the area where I planted them. I don’t really want black nightshade all over the place there, either. I have a big plot of the species in the shade area, so it’s not like I won’t have any of those. I did indeed take those out, plus all the black nightshade volunteers all over the garden. I kept the volunteers in the shade patch and put a soaker hose there. But I also took out most of the black jimsonweed volunteers and made room in the datura patch for some sunflowers, since one has volunteered there).

That said, it looks like the heat is more to the daturas’ liking than the black nighthsade’s. The daturas are forming a massive canopy over their section of the garden, even beginning to overtake the black nightshade, which is looking a little more skeletal as it forms tons of berries in preparation for attempting to carpetbomb that part of the garden with its children.

Toloache flower 071810

I have to say that I love the toloache leaves. They are so beautifully thick, almost blueish, and untouched by bug chomping. In comparison, bugs just love to eat that jimsonweed, but it grows on undaunted; that’s something I really like about that plant: its toughness and ability to persist. It shrugs off threat. My unmatta (D. fastuosa) are the laggards of the datura patch. They are much smaller, but looking closely yesterday, I saw that one is forming buds. Next time, they are going out front, because I suspect they would like more sun.

The calendulas that are out front look fine but they are a bit tame for my tastes. I think they would do better as a big bed instead of as single plantings. Next year I will try that. The blood-drop emlets just could not compete with the grass. The one in the pot on the patio is doing great, but the ones in the ground have been smothered by it.

The wild tobacco (Nicotiana rustica) is starting to flower, but the lower leaves are yellowing, and I’m not sure if it’s because of dryness or what.

The variegated nicandra is growing like a house on fire and I will definitely be getting seeds from it, but after all this effort, I don’t think it was worth the wait. It is just so-so to look at, it cannot be used for anything, and it does not have a good smell. The leaves were very nicely variegated at first, but now they are shading more into green. I think in partial shade it would be more attractively variegated. That is usually the case with variegated plants.

Jasmine tobacco

The good smell is all in the jasmine tobacco (Nicotiana alata, which I obtained as Nicotiana affinis). This ought to be called gardenia tobacco, as far as I’m concerned, because that’s what it smells like. Those plants have put on a bunch of flowers and it has gotten to the point now where in the early evening, you can smell them at the end of the driveway. Papa Legba must like them. I hope I can collect some seeds from those. The flowers look a bit ragged in the daytime, but at dust they perk up and are very nice in the morning. The scent is very strong and changes. During the day it is almost absent. Sometimes it can smell strongly soapy. It’s a very interesting plant, and one I will definitely grow again. It looks like they have changed the nomenclature for this plant and it is in fact a parent for a lot of the scented nicotianas out there right now, especially the “Perfume” series.

I have jasmine tobacco’s cousin, woodland tobacco (N. sylvestris), growing in the back, but it is quite stunted in comparison. Not much light back gets there, and the soil is much drier. The front has more runoff from the roof and the driveway.

I gave the peppers much larger pots this year, trading the one-gallon for five-gallon (although these five-gallons are on the small side). They seem to also like the position I gave them against the western wall of the house, where a lot of light and warmth is reflected on them. The Bull Nose peppers are beginning to form fruits, and the Aleppo peppers are just beginning to get buds. I am hoping for a much better pepper harvest this year, as I am paying them a great deal more attention and they are in much bigger pots.

Finally, the wild purple petunia (Petunia integrifolia) that volunteered en masse in a pot from last year, does have a nice smell after all. Last year I am sure the smell was either absent or unpleasant. It was on that basis I decided not to harvest the seeds, in fact. So this year I will definitely be harvesting seeds from this and, if it ever gets flowers, the wild white petunia (P. axillaris). Those are really dragging their feet. One pot full was eaten almost to nubbins by something (ants?). The other pot is only now beginning to take off. We still have plenty of summer left, but I hope they get their butts in gear.