Herbs to Know

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Bistort brings color to the garden but can also be useful medicinally and in cooking. Jerry Pavia

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BISTORT

Polygonum bistorta ‘Superbum’ (also sold as ‘Superba’)
Hardy to Zone 3

An Old World herb, bistort has Latin and common names based on the plant’s peculiar, twice-twisted rhizomatous roots. These give rise to a mound of huge, puckered and tapering foliage that diminishes in size as it ascends slender, stiff-jointed stems. The foliage is attractive all season and in the fall turns burnished red, but the plant’s real draw is its prolific production of tightly packed tiny pink flowers in dense 3-inch spikes in early summer (repeat bloom in fall is possible, too). The massed flower heads with their protruding stamens look like fluffy pokers. A mature plant in bloom is a showstopping 2 to 3 feet tall and nearly as wide.

Plants are easily established from rhizomes in early spring or early fall in moisture-retentive soil, in sun or light shade. Where summers are very hot, some shade will prolong bloom, which should last a month or more. One of bistort’s most endearing traits for a gardener afflicted with the “move-its” is its ability to resettle comfortably after transplanting, at almost any state of its growth. It does not mind wet feet, so you can plant this admirable herb even in a bog.

Bistort owes its history of curative powers to its astringent tannin-packed roots, once used to tan leather. Many bistort-root preparations also were used to dry up mouth and gum sores and to cure diarrhea. The young shoots were eaten as a vegetable, especially in Bistort Pudding, a traditional dish served as a spring restorative at Easter.

I like to cut the tall, strong stems for bouquets, fresh and dried. The sweetly hawthorn-scented flower heads can be dried and added to potpourri.

WHITE MUGWORT

Artemisia lactiflora
Hardy to Zone 3

White mugwort, the only perennial artemisia grown for its flowers, was discovered in China in the late 19th century by the great plant collector Ernest Wilson. Mine was a gift from America’s great herb authority Gertrude Foster, and I soon realized its value as a garden plant and source of dried flowers for bouquets and potpourri. A perennial of shrublike proportions to 5 feet, it bears masses of tiny creamy white perfumed flowers in late summer in loosely panicled plumes at the end of sprawling reddish stems covered with deeply toothed green leaves. The leaves of ‘Guizhou’, on dark purple stems, appear nearly black at the base of the plant. The flowers’ aroma is something like grape with camphorous, resinous overtones.

This relatively unknown member of the large Artemisia genus is easy to grow and, unlike its invasive cousin mugwort (A. vulgaris), it does not make a pest of itself. Plants reach their maximum height in rich, moist but well-drained soil in sun or partial shade. For a shorter, bushier plant, cut back white mugwort when it is about 2 feet tall, or plant it in drier soil and full sun. Since flowers are sterile, plants only can be grown by cuttings and root divisions. Grow this as a background plant for echinaceas (Echinacea spp.) and garlic chives (Allium tuberosum), which bloom at the same time.

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