HERB - St. Johs Wort

[Sheron Buchele/Curtis Rowland]

Gentles,

I found St. John's Wort in bloom around the Smithville Lake at last
summer's Lilies.  It was quite amazing.  I harvested some on St. John's eve
(June 23th) during a thunderstorm - (St. John's Day (his birthday) is June
24).  Not *the* thunderstorm of Lilies - just one of the incidental ones....

My SJW (Loveland, Colorado in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains) blooms
from late June to late August and has been spreading most agressively.  I
have harvested in mid-July in the theory of getting maximum blooms.  But
after drying and processing, I noticed a fair number of seed pods, so I may
go a week or so earlier as the seed pods are sharp and poked my hands.  As
I understand the main good juju is in the flowers but I havest about 1/3
stem also.  I got about a pound after processing out of the garden this
year.  More next!

I have never protected it, and we are a warm Zone 5 (down to -10F).  It's
about 3 years old now and has bloomed from it's second year.  I wonder if
your area doesn't get cold enough for it to bloom?  I looked in the Rodale
Big Book of Herbs and it doesn't say anything about how to get it to bloom.

Joyous Holidays to all,
Baroness Leonora
Outlands

 

At 08:22 PM 12/5/98 -0600, you wrote:
>I've heard that St. Johns wort is called thus because it blooms near the
feast of St.
>John.  I'm not too good with these celebrations, so just when is the feast
of St. John?
>I'd like to know when the dern wort will bloom.  It hasn't put on a bloom
all year.
>
>PS  I think in my climate the wort is a perennial.  Should I protect it
from freezes?
>Its grown to a 5' diameter patch and I'd like to see it continue to prosper.
>
>PPS  I can't wait for some cooler weather, it got into the upper 80's
today!! and its
>December 5th.
>
>Henri and Antea
>Kingdom of Ansteorra, Barony Stargate
>Purveyors of fine herbs and spices
>http://www.hypercon.com/naturalhome
>
>
>============================================================================
>Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.
>
============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.