Lavendula spp.
In summer, my front garden is covered in fluffy mounds of blooming purple lavender, wafting their intoxicating scent on the breeze to welcome visitors to my door, and attracting thousands of busy bees to drink their heady nectar. I love to stroke the flower heads to release the perfume, and I know these plants are going to supply me with many useful products when I harvest them.
The genus name lavendula comes from the Latin lavare and means ‘to wash’, which explains its ancient purpose. The Greeks, Romans and Carthaginians all used lavender in bath water for both its scent and its therapeutic properties. By the early Middle Ages, washerwomen were known as lavenders, for their practice of spreading clothes to dry upon lavender bushes and for scenting the clean clothes in storage with dried lavender flowers. The fragrance and insect deterring properties make it a popular household herb. Throughout the Middle Ages it was a common strewing herb, (fragrant herbs scattered onto the floors of rooms to perfume the air and keep down dust and pests). Lavender flowers were also placed in linen cupboards to deter moths and keep away flies. In 1387 Charles VI of France had lavender stuffed cushions. [1] Today we still use the dried flowers in sachets to freshen stored linen and deter moths and insects from attacking it, or as a general air freshener in potpourri.
Lavender has been used in medicine a remedy for various complaints. The physician to the Roman army, Dioscorides, wrote that lavender taken internally would relieve indigestion, sore throats and headaches, while externally it cleansed wounds. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was grown extensively in monastery gardens for its medicinal properties. The mediaeval glove makers of Grasse used liberal amounts of lavender oil to scent leather, and it was rumoured that they seldom caught the plague, so people began to carry posies of lavender to ward off disease. Lavender was a component of the legendary Four Thieves Vinegar, which claimed to prevent plague. According to the story, four thieves admitted the vinegar they had invented allowed them to burgle the houses of plague victims without catching the infection themselves. Lavender was strewn on the floors of churches to avert the plague and protect churchgoers. In the seventeenth century, lavender was found in most herbals as a cure all. The great English herbalists Gerard, Parkinson and Culpepper all wrote about lavender and the treatments that could be made from it, making medical knowledge available to anyone who could afford to buy a book. Many country homes kept a bottle of lavender oil for aches and pains, bruises and burns. Lavender flowers soaked in gin or brandy was a popular farmhouse remedy for many ailments, while harvesters wore a sprig of lavender in their hats to prevent headaches caused by the sun. During the Second World War lavender oil was still being used as an antiseptic swab on wounds.
When it comes to love, lavender has a rather contradictory reputation, sometimes used for seduction, and sometimes used to preserve chastity. The Bible tells us that Judith wore perfume containing lavender to charm Holofernes before killing him. Prostitutes wore lavender to arouse sexual desires in men, and lavender was used in love spells and divinations. In Tudor times, young girls would sip lavender tea and chant, “St Luke, St Luke, be kind to me. In my dreams, let me my true love see.” Alpine girls would tuck some lavender under their sweetheart’s pillow to make their thoughts turn to romance, and wives would secrete lavender under the mattress to ensure marital passion and harmony. [2] On the other hand, a sprig of lavender, carried along with a sprig of rosemary, preserved chastity.
As well as preventing disease, lavender was used to avert evil. Crosses of lavender could be hung over the door for protection, while in Spain and Portugal, lavender was included in bonfires on St. John’s Day (Midsummer’s Day) to ward off wicked spirits. [3]In Tuscany, a sprig of lavender pinned to one’s shirt warded against the evil eye. [4]In Sardinia lavender was combined with rue in small bags of fabric and worn around the neck next to the skin for protection. [5] In Wales, wearing a sprig of lavender drove off witches and ghosts. [6]
Sacred to the Greek witch goddess Hecate and her witch daughters Medea and Circe, lavender also played its part on magic and witchcraft. Carrying or inhaling the scent of lavender was said to enable one to see ghosts. [7]
[1] Lesley Gordon, A Country Herbal, Webb & Bower Ltd, London, 1980
[2] https://yourehistory.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/folklore-in-my-garden-lavender/ accessed 16.11.21
[3] Ellen Spector Platt, Lavender: How to Grow and Use the Fragrant Herb, Stackpole Books, 2009
[4] Ellen Spector Platt, Lavender: How to Grow and Use the Fragrant Herb, Stackpole Books, 2009
[5] Sabina Magliocco Witchcraft, healing and vernacular magic in Italy in Witchcraft Continued,
https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526137975.00012, Publication Date: 01 Jan 2020, accessed 16.11.21
[6] Marie Trevelyan, Folk Lore and Folk Stories of Wales, Elliot Stock, 1909
[7] Elsevier
Hearth Witchery 