SoapWort - Saponaria officinalis

[TeeDee]

So I have purchased some soapwort seeds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponaria_officinalis with a viewing to growing them and seeing how effective they are acting as a " Soap "

What else could one grow out of interest to see about utilising. I'm not talking about growing for Food or for Medicine but I guess for a Resource.

The other thing I thought of trying to grow was Cotton.


Ideas.

 

[bobnewboy]

I got some liquorice seeds at a seed swap day in the local town last year. After a month in the greenhouse to give them a head start, they grew up into pleasant leafy bushes with some flowers. No seeds as far as I remember in their first year. The above ground growth all died back over winter, and then when I cleared the dead growth I found that I had a collection of thick chunky roots extending up to the ground surface. I have left them in their 70l tub this year, but they haven’t sprouted yet. I believe that they should be let alone for a few years until they exhaust the soil, and then the fun begins...!

Digging, cleaning, chopping and boiling. It should be interesting to see what results.

NB: I don’t think that the greenhouse start is really necessary, as liquorice grows well all over the U.K.

Cheers, Bob

 

[TeeDee]

I got some liquorice seeds at a seed swap day in the local town last year. After a month in the greenhouse to give them a head start, they grew up into pleasant leafy bushes with some flowers. No seeds as far as I remember in their first year. The above ground growth all died back over winter, and then when I cleared the dead growth I found that I had a collection of thick chunky roots extending up to the ground surface. I have left them in their 70l tub this year, but they haven’t sprouted yet. I believe that they should be let alone for a few years until they exhaust the soil, and then the fun begins...!

Digging, cleaning, chopping and boiling. It should be interesting to see what results.

NB: I don’t think that the greenhouse start is really necessary, as liquorice grows well all over the U.K.

Cheers, Bob

Fascinating!! What a great thing to grow and find out about. Do keep us posted please Bob.

 

[Broch]

The list is endless to be honest. I have 16 A4 pages of identified plants (including trees) from my woods and most of them have a 'use' of some kind.

However, to start a discussion that I will watch with interest - here is one that has more than one relevance to today

Great Mullein Verbascum thapsus

Inedible Flowers as tea for coughs Infusion in oil for earache and other external pain Leaves smoked with tobacco or in tea for dry coughs Poultices for backache and swellings Leaf hairs used to make candle wicks Stem burnt as a flare Flowers for yellow dye Leaves as tobacco Leaves as toilet paper, nappies, food wrapping & insoles

 

[Toddy]

@bobnewboy....liquorice

....except in Lanarkshire

We get the seeds to start, pot them up, grow them on, plant them out and they look leafy and then they're just gone.

@TeeDee
Soapwort is a lovely plant. It's a messy sprawl of a plant, but it's such a gentle thing on skin that it's very much worth growing as a natural soap.
Don't use the roots, use the leafy stems. Just take one, crush it up in water and really vigorously rub it between your palms. The result is a green soapy water. The green doesn't stain anything, I use it on fine white linen and cotton, and the water really does clean and it doesn't leave your hands a dry mess. I have sensitive skin and will break out with so many things, but soapwort is safe
It used to be called Bouncing Bet, and it was grown near water at the edge of most villages. Handy for doing the laundry.

 

[TeeDee]

The list is endless to be honest. I have 16 A4 pages of identified plants (including trees) from my woods and most of them have a 'use' of some kind.

Great Mullein Verbascum thapsus

Inedible Flowers as tea for coughs Infusion in oil for earache and other external pain Leaves smoked with tobacco or in tea for dry coughs Poultices for backache and swellings Leaf hairs used to make candle wicks Stem burnt as a flare Flowers for yellow dye Leaves as tobacco Leaves as toilet paper, nappies, food wrapping & insoles

I'd obviously be interested in what other interesting things you can suggest Broc.

 

[bobnewboy]

@bobnewboy....liquorice

....except in Lanarkshire

We get the seeds to start, pot them up, grow them on, plant them out and they look leafy and then they're gone.

Ah, that’s a shame as they are famously grown up in Yorkshire and places north, but it would seem that you’re just too far up

TeeDee, I will post something when I harvest the roots. I’ve snapped the dead, dry twiggy bits back to the chubby, woody roots (about the diameter of my little finger) at soil level, so I’m hopeful that I have something to go on. If there aren’t any shoots popping up by around May, I will have a poke around and dig some up. I seem to remember that the seeds took a long time (more than a month) to germinate, so perhaps liquorice is a bit lazy getting started each year.

Cheers, Bob

 

[Toddy]

I wondered if it were our soil. It's heavy Lanarkshire blue clay, even though we compost everything we can to add organic matter to it, it is still heavy clay soil.

M

 

[Broch]

You might like to have a look at this:

BRIT - Native American Ethnobotany Database

naeb.brit.org

It's the online database (free to access) that makes up the data published in the 'Native American Ethno Botany' book (which is a tome, with no pictures, about A4 sized and nearly 2.5" thick and cost me around £60). The search mechanism is not brilliant but it works. So, if you want to look up what different woods the Native Americans used for bow making enter 'bow AND making'. If you just enter 'bow' you'll get all the medicines used to treat the bowel as well as bow making . Or try entering 'cordage' to find the plants used to make cord.

Then, of course, you have to cross reference to find if the same plants are in the UK. Sometimes finding a plant in the same family and experimenting is fun .

 

[bobnewboy]

Fascinating!! What a great thing to grow and find out about. Do keep us posted please Bob.

Well, by way of a quick update: the three bushes I have grown have sprouted again, and have doubled in size since I took the following photo of one of them:

...You can just about see the top of the fat stem/root, kinda browny/orangey coloured, next to my finger. So I wont be diggging them out of their tub this year, but they can rest and grow bigger for a future harvest The plants/bushes do seem to be growing well, and have doubled in size in the past week, just a bit slow to get started. If they seed this year I will save the seed pods, and then we shall see.

Cheers, Bob

 

[Toddy]

I was actually searching for mullein and came across this thread from Spring last year.

I have six tall plants that I just leave to self seed around the garden. If they're in the way, I pull them out but they're pretty much easy to deal with.
Foxglove, Evening Primrose, Mugwort, Figwort, Meadowsweet, and Mullein.

I've been slowly working my way around the garden and gently tidying up old plants, dead flower stems, etc., before the Winter hits when I generally leave stuff alone to give a bit of shelter for wildlife.

I cut down the Mullein spikes this afternoon, and they're as straight and firm as a long cane.
I rarely bother trying to use a firedrill, just too hard on the hands usually, but I've kept one this time just to have a play with

How best to deal with it ? do I scrape it clean or leave it to wither ? store it upright or flat ?
and any advice on actually using it ? length, etc.,

 

[Broch]

I left mine upright and left to dry; it stayed as straight as a rule. I then rubbed it lightly with a fine sandpaper to take most of the roughness out. However, my soft work-shy hands only managed a feint wisp of smoke and far from an ember. I'll try again sometime.

It really is quite amazing how hard and strong a mullein stem is when it's dry isn't it?

 

[billycoen]

I bought some mugwort seeds,used the plants for fire lighting.

 

[Toddy]

Mugwort is a beautiful hearth herb. Wonderful billowing pleasantly scented white smoke from the dried leaves used as a nest to blow an ember into flame too.

Lots of uses for the plant though.

I have the last of this years drying in net bags above the radiator in the kitchen just now

 

[billycoen]

Not too sure,but i seem to remember reading somewhere that mugwort was used in certain rituals.,don't know by who or where..

 

[Toddy]

It's used world wide for many things. The Japanese use it as the glowing bit under a thin disc/sheet of vermiculite in one of their ceremony bowls. It's used as the Moxa in moxibustion, it's used in traditional smoking mixtures (it doesn't get anyone 'high' despite the scent) it was used to cleanse the air of a sickroom.......it's a brilliant nest for blowing up an ember

 

[Broch]

As well as a wide range of medical applications, Mugwort is classed as an aromatic in my notes; used as an insect repellent and to fumigate dwellings, and, as Toddy says, used in herbal tobacco. Down from leaves can be used as a tinder that will take a spark.

 

[billycoen]

Thankyou both for the replies..very interesting.

 

[Suffolkrafter]

I have a little packet of dried and powdered mugwort leaves in my fire lighting kit. It's in the same genus as wormwood (and tarragon I think) which is an ingredient of absinthe.