Cures for headaches and piles?
Sandra shares her knowledge of plant folklore
The doctrine of signatures suggested plants could be matched with the organs they would successfully treat, according to what they looked like. Walnuts, which look like brains, were considered to cure headaches, while the bulbous roots of pilewort were believed to be ideal for haemorrhoids!
In Scotland, if someone wants to know if their companions are telling the truth, folklore says they should carry a sprig of eyebright in their pockets!
In Wales, a sprig of St John’s Wort was gathered for each member of the family, named and hung up: the first to wither meant that person would be the first to die. While on the Isle of Wight, people had to be careful not to step on the shrub in case a fairy horse kidnapped them, made them ride to exhaustion, then abandoned them far from home.
Wearing a holly sprig to Midnight Mass risked the curse of foresight. Bearers would know which of their fellow parishioners would die in the coming year. If they failed to remove every last holly leaf from the house by Twelfth Night, it might just be them!
Brides in Ancient Greece carried garlic in their bouquets to ward off evil spirits. The tradition linking garlic with vampires began in Romania, where the bulb was originally a general catch-all against demons, witches and sorcery.
Feverfew, a pretty member of the daisy family, was said to treat ‘elfshot’, where invisible fairies fired invisible arrows at humans and animals that had offended them, causing sudden, intense pain.
Artemesia was burned with sandalwood to contact the dead. And Mugwort, in the artemisia family, could also deter sea dragons!
Sandra is currently planting a yew hedge in her own garden.
‘Yew represents permanence and longevity, it’s a tree of wisdom, I wanted to stamp my mark on the garden.’
She’s also adding a rowan.
‘It’s a great tree of protection and every part of it has magical associations. It was used for both cradles and coffins and is the tree of the fairies. In fact, if you ever come across someone who is trapped in a fairy ring, the advice is to push them out with a staff made from rowan!
‘Each of the rowan’s berries also bears a tiny, five-pointed star at its base that, as the fruit ripens, looks like a magical pentagram, a sign of good luck.’
SHADY SPOTS
Ferns are easy to grow and, as woodland plants, happy with very little sun.
If you believe our ancestors, ferns have another benefit: granting invisibility!
‘Ferns don’t propagate by seeds,’ explains Sandra. ‘The ancients couldn’t imagine anything growing without seeds, so they assumed fern seeds must be invisible.
‘It was said if you put 12 pewter plates under a fern on St John’s Eve – 23rd June – at midnight the seeds would drop through the first 11 and land on the 12th. Once you possessed these magical seeds, in theory you could become invisible!’
WINTER CHEER
Flowering in January to March – right when you need a bit of a lift – a blanket of snowdrops is a wonderful sight in midwinter.
And these symbols of purity and strength could also keep misfortune from entering your home.
‘One enduring superstition is that white flowers symbolise death and should never be brought into the house,’ says Sandra. ‘But snowdrops in a vase on an outdoor ledge keep bad luck out.’
Sandra recommends planting snowdrops for the following season around the end of February, beginning of March.
‘Buy them “in the green” when they’ve just flowered and get them in the ground quickly, and they’re much more likely to grow than if you buy them as dry bulbs in the Summer.’