DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '26 I => Current Talk '02 I => Topic started by: Raineypark on May 24, 2002, 04:17:35 PM
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Is anyone else out there an herb gardener? Just curious, as I struggle to get plants into the garden later than ever, thanks to the cold weather we've had on the east coast.
But I don't want to be completely off topic....so I'll ask a DS related question: except for the one instance during 1795 that I'm pretty sure of, does Angelique or anyone else ever use herbal magick on the show?
Rainey, who's headed back outside to play in the dirt!
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Is anyone else out there an herb gardener? Just curious, as I struggle to get plants into the garden later than ever, thanks to the cold weather we've had on the east coast.
But I don't want to be completely off topic....so I'll ask a DS related question: except for the one instance during 1795 that I'm pretty sure of, does Angelique or anyone else ever use herbal magick on the show?
Rainey, who's headed back outside to play in the dirt!
didn't Angelique have Ben fetch herbs for her potions in 1795?
trying to put my flowers in too Rainey with this weird weather had to bring them in Sun night or they would freeze but yesterday was 80!
jennifer
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I love my garden. I started a perennial garden about 6 years ago. My elder aunt told me these were great and no maintance. Of course she didn't tell me it would reach this state when I was 90 like she is. I have a few herbs in mine. I have chive and a lemon sage. Maybe Mrs. J. used chives in her cooking.. hehe. I love to see what takes and to see it come back every year a bit larger than the year before. Our soil is not that great so it takes some working on.
I read somewhere that Mr. Frid enjoys gardening. That is my DS tie to this thread
Birdie
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The only one I can think of is where Jeff asks Stokes to help with get back to 1795... Stokes holds a ceremony which... erm... involves Jeff eating leaves.
No, I didn't quite get it, either ;)
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EATING the leaves? Instead of making a tea out of them and DRINKING it?
I would have expected more sense from the Excellent Professor.
They don't trust my herb teas around here.....I think it's the Nightshade in the garden that makes them nervous [vryevl]
Yes OF COURSE I'm kidding....who can even FIND a decent Nightshade plant at the local nursery?
[lghy] Rainey
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Well Stokes was probably just enjoying watching Roger Davis look like a fool ;) Least, that's my theory...
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Yes OF COURSE I'm kidding....who can even FIND a decent Nightshade plant at the local nursery?
[lghy] Rainey
Hee hee!! Gardening is my therapy, but since it's year-round here, sometimes it qualifies more as work than fun. Anyway, there's a patch outside my kitchen only for herbs, save for a few varieties of sage that are further out in full sun. Can't do without m' sage! :)
Anyway, there was the time on the show in which someone was offered a moon poppy as a cure for... you know... the L-word. We know poppies have wonderful medicinal qualities ([sleep], for one), but TRY finding a Moon Poppy at your local garden center! ;)
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OMG -- I'd completely forgetten about the Moon Poppy [tm], another plant which someone tried to eat... [seeing a trend]
Yes, the Moon Poppy was a classic -- a silk and plastic legend in its own lifetime ;)
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I love gardening! But I live in the burbs and with all the crud they spray on lawns for that perfect green golf course look (scarier than Angelique's potions by a long shot [shckd]) I'm half afraid to try and grow anything to consume (I love dandelions and other "weeds" too - always thought they got a bad rap!). I really want to do an herb garden this year so I'm thinking of doing one in above ground (clean dirt) pots on the deck.
Hey Raineypark aren't tomatoes part of the Nightshade family? My grandmother used to tell us to beware of this family of plants and I thought she mentioned tomatoes. I really never knew why - though later I read somewhere that consuming the fruit can complicate conditions like arthritis. The worst thing they ever did to me was to cause small stomach sores in my mouth due to the acid - I can't stay away from tomatoes when they're in season!
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Not much gardening here, I just have a few plants in my kitchen, family room, and out near the pool. My daughter has a Mint plant out there that does very well, that's the only herb. I love the smell of Mint. :)
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Yes, Castlebee....I believe the tomato is related to the Nightshade family.....which explains why it took so long for Europeans to realize how wonderful they were after they were found in the New World!
You should ABSOLUTELY begin an herb garden in terra cotta pots (not plastic, they don't evaporate water well enough and herbs hate wet feet). I have 20-something of them set up on tiers of concrete blocks on my patio and everything I plant does well in them!!
Just got back from ANOTHER visit to the local nursery with my husband and couldn't resist having a laugh....I stopped one of the owners and asked where he had the Monkshood. He looked perplexed, my husband had to walk away laughing and I just stood there, smiling politely, waiting for an answer that never came.
Midnite, next week I'll go in and ask him if he's gotten any Moon Poppies yet!! [lghy] [lghy]
Rainey
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I can't grow a dull garn thing. I've been know to kill plastic plants. I get all my greens from their natural habitat - the supermarket. Same thing with any herbs - I get them in their natural casings......those little glass bottles.
And it's also been cold, cold, cold here in the midwest, too, with nothing but rain (we're getting it all while the rest of the country is screaming for it). We had warm temps yesterday (Thursday), up to 78. This morning, it was 30.
Gerard
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I love to do gardening. As a matter of fact, I just finished planting all my flowers in my garden yesterday. I just love roses, and have quite a few rose trees growing both in my back yard and front. About eight years ago, I planted a small pink rose plant in front of my house. A neighbor down the street from me told me to sprinkle some kind of herb in the dirt while I was planting the roses. Well I can't remember what that herb was but you should see this thing! I pretty much know all about roses,but I've never seen one grow this way before. It actually looks like a tree, it's so big, at least 12 feet or more, and its growing straight up like a tree!! It's full of lovely pink roses and it's not leaning or bending in the least! Unfortunately, this neighbor moved awhile ago so I can't ask her what the heck that herb was called. I also have a few herbs growing in my yard as well, Rosemary,Thyme, and sage. They have an herbal garden store near me that also sells all kinds of herbal plants.
Rainey, I wish you well with your garden! :)
As for as using herbs on the show:
SPOILER.......SPOILER............SPOILER.........SPOILER....
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Im pretty sure that while under Cassandra's powers, Liz, believing to be Naomi Collins, took some kind of herb to try and kill herself, as Naomi had done. Fortunately, the herb, I believe turned out to be Valerian root, which is more like a strong sedative. [sleep]
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Yes, the Moon Poppy was a classic -- a silk and plastic legend in its own lifetime ;)
<snort!>
Raineypark's Just got back from ANOTHER visit to the local nursery with my husband and couldn't resist having a laugh....I stopped one of the owners and asked where he had the Monkshood. He looked perplexed, my husband had to walk away laughing and I just stood there, smiling politely, waiting for an answer that never came.
LOL, you're evil!! How shameful of him to not know what happens "when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright"!
Midnite, next week I'll go in and ask him if he's gotten any Moon Poppies yet!! [lghy] [lghy]
Oh please do! Or ask him where he keeps the mandrake cuz your family is clamoring for a big pot of your homemade mandrake root stew. [wink2]
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Sorry, Midnite,, but we never cared for Mandrake Root Stew......
however, my Belladonna Punch is to die for [vryevl]
Rainey [lghy]
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however, my Belladonna Punch is to die for [vryevl]
ROFL!
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Gerard, you're hysterical. I thought you lived in NYC, but I'm glad someone else has been suffering through the cold, wind, and rain ... not to mention the occasional dumping of half a foot of snow ... over the past two months. Looks like it's suddenly summer here as of Sunday.
Rainey, your comments reminded me that my mom usually has parsley and maybe one or two other herbs growing in terra cotta pots. I don't think plastic would be good.
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In regards to Angelique and herbs, I found this topic interesting. In a story about Angelique on Little Windward Island that I started a couple of years ago (but haven't finished), I describe Angelique's herb garden, naming half a dozen herbs she grows in a rock garden down a path toward the sea. My inspiration for this is a lovely herb and flower garden in a park nearby that I sometimes sit in when I want inspiration ...
The next step would be to do further research and see if these herbs would grow in the cold windy climate of the island, but I could always put them into terra cotta pots come to think of it!
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Hi R. P.,
Herbs only pop up every so often on DS. I remember Aunt Hannah and Angelique using mandrake to enchant Quentin during the Parallel Time storyline. In 1795 it seems as if they started out trying to depict Angelique's powers a little more authentically in terms of island cunning woman type lore and practice.
Another great herbal reference is Julianka and her gathering the "blood" of the orris root--which actually IS a powerful binding agent used to give many spells an extra "kick." I'm pretty sure Violet Welles was responsible for that--she seems to have been more enthusiastic about research than the others.
I helped a friend plant his herbal seedlings the weekend before last. He had a couple of good books, one of them by an old-school hard-line gardener who made very strict recommendations about the distance between plants for the herbs. Many of them do better planted in pairs, and she also mentioned about that. I can't recall this particular author's name--the book was of the "Herb Gardening Made Easy" type, and the original publication date was ca. 1976.
What I do remember is that taller plants like fennel and rosemary should ideally have 2 feet of room between them. You may not need to worry about this, though, since the plants will not survive the winter. Unless you save the pots and transplant them out of the garden and bring them indoors in Sept. I guess there's a chance you could keep them going if you did that.
Good luck! Isn't gardening the best?
Gothick
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Yes, gardening is the best thing....and that's where I should be right now.
Have to add something though, which might interest Midnite in particular but any of you who are into herbs...
Earlier in this thread I made a joking reference to my inability to find nightshade at the local nursery.
Imagine my astonishment to discover that a local herb farm (a REAL farm, not a chain of nurseries) actually carries Aconite (variously referred to as Monkshood, Nightshade, and Wolfsbane) in pots, ready for the garden!!!!!!!!!!!!
My husband jokingly refers to this place as "The Coven" because the owners, all the employees and just about all the customers are women. Now I'm wondering......?
The stuff is so dangerous I'm not sure how you get it in the ground, much less why anyone would risk such a thing??!!!!
I would love to see the blooms, which are supposed to be exquisite, but I can't imagine risking injury or death to someone's kid or pet just for a look at the flowers!
Raineypark
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Don't know much about herbs but you should read NIGHTSHADE by John Saul. Very eerie indeed.
CAROL
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Imagine my astonishment to discover that a local herb farm (a REAL farm, not a chain of nurseries) actually carries Aconite (variously referred to as Monkshood, Nightshade, and Wolfsbane) in pots, ready for the garden!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMG. Hopefully you'll tell us they're clearly marked POISON and kept in a special section where no one can inadvertently get near them. I wouldn't even want to touch any part of them!
("The Coven"... hee hee!!)
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That's the really bizarre part....there was no warning label on them at all!!
At first I thought it might have been a special order for someone and not for general sale, but I just looked at their web-site (oh, to drool over!) and there they are: 7 species of Aconite in colors from steel blue to dark violet, listed under the shade perrenials!!!!!
I'm thinking of driving out there tomorrow morning and having another look (while I'm looking for other things!)
Raineypark