originally posted: September 28, 2001 | by chelsie

A rosery or rosarium was quite simply a rose garden. Roses had religious significance in ancient Greece and Egypt, but Roman excesses with the use of roses caused these flowers to fall out of favor. Even during the Dark Ages, though, roses had been kept and studied, but did not return to favor until the rose was linked to Mary. The rose became the symbol of joy and Mary was sometimes referred to as the Mystical Rose. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: September 21, 2001 | by chelsie

Linnaeus preferred to name things taking the words from past civilizations. Phaseolus vulgaris, he named from phaselos, the Greek word for a type of bean and vulgaris, a Latin word meaning commonplace or ordinary. But other legumes grew in the Old World which were reliable sources of nutrition. It was these legumes that got the name, bean, and handed it down to so many other related species. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: September 14, 2001 | by chelsie

In German, it is called einkorn, meaning one grain. It is the wild wheat. Five thousand years ago, Otzi (the Iceman) ate a meal of unleavened einkorn bread and carrying a bow and arrows, disappeared in the Alps. His body wasn't found until 1991 on the Austrian-Italian border. He was a Neolithic man and contrary to popular belief, this Stone Age man was a vegetarian. But we have no idea what Otzi may have called this wheat. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: September 7, 2001 | by chelsie

Fifteenth century Italy was the height of the Renaissance. The arts found new refinement, science was redefined, philosophy was the intellectual pastime, and exploration was considered a destiny. Ships returned from all over the world laden with the exotic--new foods, new plants, new fabrics, and new art. One of these new foods was rice. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 31, 2001 | by chelsie

The word, corn, is a strange term. In the United States, corn means the plant, Zea mays, but in other countries, corn just means grain. "Corn" was used in the Bible to mean any of the grains grown in the Middle East and a head of wheat was called an "ear of corn". [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 24, 2001 | by chelsie

There is nothing that brightens up a shade garden like the colorful splash of touch-me-nots or impatience (Impatiens walleriana) [im pay' shens wall er' ee an a]. If given a soil that holds moisture and planted in the shade, impatience is content to grow in the garden and bloom for months. So how did these quiet gems get the name, impatience? [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 17, 2001 | by chelsie

The carob (Ceratonia siliqua) [sair a toh' nee a sil' a qwa] is an evergreen tree native to the eastern Mediterranean. It produces a pod with bean-like seeds. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 10, 2001 | by chelsie

Staggerbush (Lyonia mariana) is a native to the southeastern U.S. This spring blooming shrub is toxic to sheep, cattle, and horses. Domestic animals usually will not eat the plant, but during times of drought they may have little else for forage. The toxins in the Lyonias cause vertigo, blindness, salivation, vomiting, and uncoordinated movements, hence the name staggerbush. Death generally follows. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 3, 2001 | by chelsie

Scouring rushes or horsetails are twenty-five leftover species from ancient times having their greatest abundance and diversity 300 million years ago. These few survivors comprise the genus Equisetum and are found worldwide except in Australia and New Zealand. The plants incorporate silica, the main ingredient of sand, into their cells. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: July 27, 2001, 2002 | by chelsie

 Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is native to the rocky cliffs and scrub of the Mediterranean area. Rosmarinus is an ancient name, literally "dew of the sea", given to the plant by the Romans. Rosemary was used in herbal medicine, "against all fluxes of blood, it is also good, especially the flowers thereof, for all infirmities of the head and brain, proceeding of a cold and moist cause, for they dry the brain, quicken the senses and memory, and strengthen the sinewy parts" (Gerard, The Herball, 1633). [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: July 20, 2001 | by chelsie

 Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) [men' tha pull ee' gee um] is a name built on centuries of misunderstanding. For its reputation of driving away fleas (pulex, in Latin), the Roman historian, Pliny named this creeping mint, Pulegium. It was one of the strewing herbs; those plants collected and scattered on the floor to drive away insects and release fragrance when stepped on. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: July 15, 2001 | by chelsie

Sub rosa is a Roman term and literally means "under the rose". The Romans borrowed the idea from the Greeks. The Greek god of silence, Harpocrates, was the last son of the Egyptian god, Osiris. It was said he was born with his finger to his mouth, a symbol that even today means silence. The rose was sacred to Harpocrates. During the Greek and Persian wars, the Greeks made battle plans under a bower of roses. This signified that nothing said there was to be repeated. [Click here to read more...]