The Witches Garden


Witches' Thimbles
Foxglove, which has large tubular flowers. It's also the original source of
digitalis, a heart medication. This plant was used for 'trial by ordeal' in
medieval Italy.


Love Apples
Tomatoes. The name, and the supposedly aphrodisiacal effect, resulted from a
mistranslation of the name by the French. Since these are related to
belladonna and several other poisonous plants, people were still arguing
about whether too many tomatoes could be deadly as late as the 17th century.
Perhaps a nice black variety would go well in your witch garden...

Hemlock
ah, root of hemlock, "digg'd i' the dark". Not the tree, but an herb that's
a member of the carrot family, and a deadly poison. This is also known as
Fool's Parsley.


Monkshood
Supposedly the 'quintessential plant of the occult'. It has beautiful purple
flower spikes. It was used in combination with belladonna to make a flying
ointment, and in combination with water parsnip, cinquefoil, belladonna, and
soot to make an ointment of the imagination, that allowed witches to contact
the other side. It contains the deadly poison aconitine, which slows heart
rate, decreases blood pressure, and numbs pain. The ancient Greeks believed
monkshood sprouted from the spittle of the hellhound Cerberus.


Wolf's Bane
Closely related to monkshood, this is often confused with it. This plant,
which has small yellow flowers, is often just referred to as Aconite. One
recipe from 16th century Naples has a mix of aconite and English yew, with
powered glass, caustic lime, arsenic, bitter almonds, and honey, formed into
pills.

Mandrake
A plant with many fables surrounding it. The twisted, elaborate root was
thought to look like a man, and people thought it screamed when it was
pulled out of the ground. Dogs were used to pull roots up, because
supposedly the dog always died afterwards. This root has a narcotic effect.


Vervaine
Better known as verbena, this was used for love potions. It had to be dug up
with a piece of gold or a stag's horn on the Saints Days, June 27 and July
25. Often used with endive seed.

Opium Poppy
This isn't illegal to grow, unless you have large fields of poppies. Shakers
used to give an opium syrup to high strung children. This poppy is the
symbol of sleep and dreams. My favorite quote is from Jean Cocteau: "Opium
is the only vegetable substance that communicates the vegetable state to
us."


Yarrow
Used for a wound poultice with plantain leaves. This was still used during
the Civil War. This was considered one of the devil's favorite plants, and
was known as Devil's Nettle.

Dill
Dill water was used to soothe baby's colic.

Cumin
Used extensively for love potions.

Deadly Nightshade
Not to be confused with the non-deadly variety, this one(Atropa belladonna)
is related to the potato, the tomato, and many other poisonous plants, and
is also known as Belladonna. It's the source of the drug atropine, which has
wide ranging nervous effects. It has purplish-red flowers and poisonous
berries. Once ladies would use belladonna extract too dilate their pupils.


Poplar trees
I'm not sure why witches had such a fascination with the tree, except that
they used it in combination with monkshood, hemlock, and soot to make a
deadly poison. Some other trees they had an affinity for are alder, larch,
and cypress.

Feverfew
useful for relieving migraines, this is used extensively today.

Tobacco
Witches supposedly used it for a soporific effect.

Thorn Apple
Known now as Jimson Weed, this plant has hallucinogenic effects. The name
derives from the prickly fruits, and the juice from these fruits was applied
to the mothers' nipples to kill unwanted infants.


Henbane
A close relative of Thorn Apple and the nightshades, henbane was also used
in the preparation of "flying ointments"
Parsley
Supposedly parsley seed goes nine times to the devil and back before it
comes up, which is why you never get 100% germination...

Meadow Saffron
This is not the same as culinary saffron. This was used for gout and
arthritis, and too much can cause head pain and vomiting. Witches used it
for its supposed soporific effect.

Alkanet
This is used to make a red dye, and it was believed that if it was applied
to the 'privities' it would draw forth a dead child.

Morning Glory
Witches would wrap morning glory stems around a person nine times to cast a
wicked spell; it had to be used 3 days before a full moon.

Witches would have three or four rows of red flowers (geraniums,
nasturtiums, red-hot pokers) surrounding her garden as a defense against
witch hunters. These flowers were known as "witch soldiers". Herbs for black
magic had to be gathered during certain phases of the moon, and they had to
be gathered from a spot that the sun had not touched, since witches' work
cannot stand the light of day. It was best to collect an odd number of
sprigs, and best was 7 or 9. To make potions, three kinds of wood had to be
used to boil the water. Witches would also keep a variety of different
flowers growing in the garden, so that she had flowers from every group in
her flora chart. This would allow her to have power over people with every
birthsign.

~source unknown~