HERB - Growing herbs and Questions

[DianaFiona@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/1/99 1:42:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, mikel at pdq.net 
writes:

<< 
 I also have echinacea (purple cone flower) blooming, which I would also like 
to make into a tincture.  It is a perennial, right? So it should come back 
from the roots next year?  Or do I need to let it go to seed and plant those 
to keep the production going?
  >>
	Yes, it is a perennial, indeed. You might let some of the blooms go 
to seed to plant and increase your plot, but otherwise you can clip them to 
make a tincture. Mind you, the roots are more potent, but to use those you 
have to harvest the whole plant. :-( I don't have the heart to do that, so 
content myself with a tincture from the flowers and stems, which do have some 
of the same chemicals. Making a tincture can be as simple as steeping the 
chopped plant material in vodka to barely cover for several weeks/months, 
then straining. To make it stronger--this works well with echinacea, since it 
blooms over a long period of time--steep one batch, strain, and add more 
plant matter to the original alcohol mixture. Repeat as many times as you 
wish. If you do wish to harvest the roots sometime (perhaps after you have 
built up a larger stand of plants), do so in the fall and only harvest 
older--2+ year old--roots, since those will be more potent.

			Ldy Diana
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