Rosemary & Heartnut Tree Cuttings Started!

Before I work in my garden, I always cleanse, release and ask Goddess to guide my hands and my heart to benefit my projects. Today's project was to start some cuttings for both my Rosemary and the Heartnut tree that started itself in an inconvenient area. Rosemary is pretty straightforward  but the Heartnut is another experiment, so here's hoping it goes well!

My Rosemary grows at the entrance to the house. Rosemary is well known for its cleansing and purifying characteristics. It is used for protection, exorcism  healing, to aid sleep, to increase mental & intellectual powers and to bring love. It is one of the oldest incense, and when burned it helps to rid a place of negative energy and is especially useful prior to performing magick. 

Rosemary has medicinal properties too! It helps to aid the digestion of fat and helps with migraines. You can make a tea to use as a mouthwash for bad breath. It is also said to be useful for eczema, wounds and sores. Rosemary is useful in relieving symptoms of the common cold and when smokes along with coltsfoot, it is said to relieve asthma and other lung conditions. NEVER exceed more than one cup a day when used as a tea or you'll put yourself at risk of fatal poisoning.

The Heartnut tree is native to Japan and is a relative of the walnut tree. They have no listed magickal uses but are yummy and good for you!!! I really hope I can get the cuttings to go. If not, I am sure there will be more baby trees this year again. This time, I'll keep my open for them so I can dig and relocate them before they are too well established!

How to do softwood cuttings (from http://www.freeplants.com/soft%20of%20decid.htm):

Preparing a softwood cutting is easy. Just clip a cutting about 4" in length from the parent plant. Take only tip cuttings. In other words, just take one cutting from each branch, the top four inches of each branch. This is the newest growth. Strip the leaves off the lower two thirds of the cutting, leaving just a stem and a few leaves at the top.

When propagating softwood cuttings, wounding the cutting slightly can help the rooting process. You can wound the cutting by scraping the side of the stem lightly from the bottom of the cutting up 1/2".

It is always beneficial to treat your cuttings with a liquid or a powder rooting compound just prior to sticking them. Rooting compounds are available at most garden centers and do help to stimulate root development. It really doesn't matter whether you use a liquid or a powder. There are different strengths available in the powder formulas. Hardwood cuttings require a stronger formula than softwood cuttings.

Most liquid rooting compounds are sold in concentrate form and must be diluted with water. I like the liquid because all you have to do is adjust the amount of water you add depending on whether you are propagating softwood or hardwood cuttings. There are instructions on the package.

Picking My Wiccan Name Using Numerology

I'm curious how many people out there have delved into any form of studying Numerology. I've been reading and playing with it for years and find it quite fascinating. My first lesson in Numerology came from "A Collection From Mysteries of the Unknown" with 1989 as the date on the back of the book. If memory serves me right, I found that book while cleaning a house out after someone moved. They had left it behind. That would be around 1993 that I got that book.

These days, the book binding is torn and the corners are squished but the book is still in order. In this book there is a detailed chapter on Charting the Four Basic Numbers. I have used this book for interpretations for nearly 20 years! Wow. That was a bit odd to write, but I digress...

The lesson is quite detailed and very in depth. When I chose my Wiccan name, I used my Life Lesson number and worked on a name that would include natural elements that meant something to me. I tried a bunch of names that I liked, but none calculated out correctly. I kept working until I found a couple that I liked. It took me a few days to finally decide because I didn't really think it was "right" to include my birth name.

After reading and meditating on it, I finally decided that my name is natural and the Lily is one of my favorite flowers (they are tied with Irises for #1) so why not. There it was.

Blessed be!

Useful Medicinal Wildflowers

As you read in my prior post, I have been out in the garden today. I spotted some very common and quite pretty wildflowers in the yard and decided I needed to find them and see if they had any use. I was searching the internet and asked my mentor, Sinnan, to help me search the names of these weeds that we often see. It didn't take long to find them, like I said they are SUPER common! 

Once I knew what they were, I did the research to see if, and how, they fit into my spell crafting or Shaman healing. Do you have plants in your garden that you cannot figure out? It looks like the new case my husband made me will be full before long! 

Purple Deadnettle is a healing herb which is also an annual. It is said they get quite large if nurtured and not mowed so I've asked the husband not to mow them. Let's see what these do! They have a lot of health benefits and are useful in spell work to represent tenacity, cheer and strength.

The photos above and below are of chickweed. It is full of vitamins and minerals  as well as discouraging obesity (according to Scott Cunningham's Book "Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen"). I really love the story about Zed, and how chickweed was used to clear up chronic conjunctivitis!

These photos are what I think is Ground Ivy among the chickweed. If so, ground Ivy also has health benefits and magical properties! This one is used for divination and hex breaking.

Can you name the herbs found here? I have more research ahead of me. Yeah! :-)

The Useful Weed
by James McIntyre

Do not despise the humble weed,
For the Lord He first sowed the seed,
Perhaps it bears most precious fruit,
And useful leaves and potent root.

Though it seems now a useless weed,
Countless millions it yet may feed,
Or future ages it may prize,
Finding in it beauteous dyes.

Or a valued healing balm,
Will make the heated pulse beat calm,
And the future men of science,
May place on it strong reliance.

And it may play important part,
In advancing skill and art,
And no person now doth know
How useful are the weeds that grow.

Weeds we now look on with loathing,
They may yet be used for clothing,
Producing silken glossy coat,
Or paper fine for the bank note.

But you at present must take heed,
And do not grow the cumbrous weed,
Either in garden or in field,
Where plants with profit now do yield.

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