How to Grow, Harvest & Use Echinacea for your Home Apothecary

Echinacea, or coneflower, is a perennial plant that gets it name from the greek word 'ekhinos', which translates to 'hedgehog' because of its spiky appearance. There are around 10 species of echinacea that are found in Central and Eastern North America that are often grown on the homestead for its beautiful blossoms and use in the home apothecary.

Why you should grow Echinacea

Other than being a beautiful late summer flower that will bring you joy each time to spot it, Echinacea is great because:

• it is a great cut flower for a homemade farm bouquet
• it's showy flower head feeds & attract precious pollinators to your yard
• dried flower heads contain seeds which small birds will love when food is scarce
• it is plant medicine & has immune boosting properties
• it is also plant medicine for the bees!

How to Grow, Harvest & Use Echinacea for your Home Apothecary

How to grow Echinacea from seed

Echinacea is a sun loving perennial that will tolerate some shade. It grows a woody and study stem that can grow up to 60cm with flower heads that can get up to 10cm across.

Although, if you are growing Echinacea from seed and want to be blessed with these bold blossoms, you will need to start your seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before planting outside after the risk of frost has passed. 

You can also direct sow your seeds in the spring after the risk of frost has passed but depending on your climate and length of your growing season, blossoms may not appear until the following year. 

Seeds can also be direct sown in September to October to give the plant's roots a head starts for blossoms the following year.

Plant your seeds about 1/8" deep in well draining soil. If starting seeds indoors, transplant into a 4" pot once the first set of true leaves appear. When planting them in the garden, space them 18 - 24" apart in a sunny location. They can be divided, and replanted in a couple years.

How to Grow, Harvest & Use Echinacea for your Home Apothecary

Saving Echinacea seeds

Once your Echinacea plant has grown to full maturity and begins to dry in the fall and winter, the stem, petals, and flower head will turn brown, the leaves will begin to fall and your seeds are ready to harvest. Simply snap the stem 10cm below the flower head and turn upside down in a paper bag or on a plate and gently tap the flower head to loosen the seeds. For stubborn seeds, you can gently rub the flower head to loosen but be careful, its sharp! Store your seeds in a cool, dark and dry location.

How to Grow, Harvest & Use Echinacea for your Home Apothecary

Ways to use Echinacea in your Home Apothecary

Echinacea is well known for its immune boosting and wound healing properties because it is antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiseptic and antiviral.

This is not to be taken as medical advice. Before using echinacea, speak to your family doctor and read our disclaimer.

All parts of the plant can be used in your home apothecary, the root, the stem and the flower. But if you dig up your establish echinacea plant to use the the roots, you will be taking the life of the plant and won't be able to enjoy it next year, unless you start more plants from its seeds. Luckily, you can use the stems and flower!

Use echinacea only when you are beginning to feel under the weather as it is not meant to be used daily. When you are feeling unwell, drink echinacea tea a couple times each day for no more than three days in a row and people who have a compromised immune system shouldn't use echinacea.

Echinacea Tea

Make a tea with 1 teaspoon of dried flower petals and leaves steeping 8 ounces of hot water for around 10 minutes and enjoy!

Echinacea Salve

Using this DIY Salve tutorial, you can make yourself a skin healing salve for your home apothecary.

How to Grow, Harvest & Use Echinacea for your Home Apothecary

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinacea

Although modern medicine is most dominant in our world, I believe in the power of plant magic and that it can help relieve common, everyday discomforts easily and effectively. Today, I've listed 9 different medicinal flower plants to add to your homestead, what they are good for and links to other blog posts on how to use them. But, before ingesting any herbs, do your own research and read my disclaimer here.

Why you should grow medicinal flowers around the homestead:

9 Medicinal Flowers to grow for your home apothecary!

CALENDULA | This easy-to-grow, bright and sunny variety of daisy is very generous and with every blossom trimmed it seems to be more and more productive. The dried petals of Calendula have been used for centuries for their anti-oxidant properties and for it's ability to promote healing in salves or tinctures when applied to the skin to treat cuts, bruises, burns, inflammation and dermatitis. It also has been used magically for happiness, prosperity, love and harmony.



LAVENDER | Lavender is most known for its beautiful purple and fragrant blossoms but in folk-lore, lavender is most known for its ability to soothe restless people into sleep, stabilize mood, provide better concentration and reduce anxiety, and is magically associated with peace, harmony, tranquility, love, purification and healing. Herbalists have used Lavender to treat fungal infections, acne, wounds and eczema. Dried Lavender can be added to your warm bath, in a sachet to add a feminine aroma to your linens on in an eye pillow to soothe a headache.


ECHINACEA | Echinacea is one of the most popular herbs in North America because of it's history and reputation to cure everything and there is science to say it contains substances that can boost your immune system, relieve pain, reduce inflammation, it antiviral, full of antioxidants and can effect your hormones. The parts of the plant that are above ground are more effective than the root, so consider harvesting the blossoms to dry and use in teas, tinctures or ointments. Lastly, Echinacea is particularly good for bee heath!

You can read more about Echinacea, how to grow, save seeds, harvest and use echinacea in your home apothecary here!



CHAMOMILE | This daisy-like plant has also been used widely by North America for calm nerves, treating stomach issues, muscle spasms, for skin conditions and mild infections but most often, Chamomile is used to relieve stress and help promote a restful night of sleep and test tube studies show that it is effective in killing bacteria, fungus and viruses. The flower heads can be dried and crushed into a tea, infused into an oil for a homemade soothing salve, or consumed in an empty veggie capsule.



ST. JOHN'S WORT | For thousands of years, St. John's Wort has been used in ancient Greece for its antibacterial, antiviral and antioxidant properties and in recent years has been studied for is antidepressant, PMS, menopause, eczema, and wound benefits. Definitely do some research before using  St. John's Wort internally as it can effect other herbs and medications.



FEVERFEW | Although the name suggests it, Feverfew isn't very beneficial to fevers but has been used for centuries to treat headaches and arthritis. All above ground parts of the plant can be dried and used in teas or crushed up into a powder and placed in an empty veggie capsule but only a 3 petals a day is necessary to help with migraine relief according to this website.



DANDELION | Typically you don't need to buy dandelion seeds to have this powerful plant around the homestead and is often called a weed. But dandelions are incredibly useful! The leaves can be added to salads, the roots can be dried and ground into coffee and the blossoms can be used in this Dandelion Lavender Salve. They are full of vitamins A, B, C, and D and minerals such as iron, potassium and zinc and is anti-inflammatory!



BEE BALM | The name 'Bee Balm' comes from its long known history of soothing bee stings but this beautiful flowering plant can do so much more. Drinking tea made from bee balm can ease congestion, soothe sore throats and headaches and it can also relieve stomach upset, spasms and acts as a diuretic.



GOLDENROD | These bright and showy wildflowers pop up in the fall and are the bees last meal before retreating to their hive but the blossom can also be used to help heal skin wounds. All the plant parts above ground can be used in tinctures, teas and salves. Goldenrod has anti-inflammatory properties, and relieve muscle spasms, fight infections and lower blood pressure.





Sources:
https://www.umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb

This post contains affiliate links. Read the disclaimer here.

To make my Dandelion Lavender Salve

1. I picked some dandelion flowers from a pesticide free lawn with the kidlets.
2. I spread my dandelions on some parchment paper and left them outside in the sun to dehydrate. I chose parchment paper because it is white and would reflect the sunshine, but foil would work too. We want to remove the extra water in the flowers and this day happened to be hot and sunny. You could also place them on a cookie sheet and bake them at a really low temperature, I'd say 200F for about an hour, or in an actual dehydrator.
3. Next, place the flowers into a jar and fill with olive oil. There are two methods of infusion. One is slow-infusion where I leave my jar in a sunny spot for two weeks. The other is quick where you place your open jar of dandelion oil inside a pot of warm water with the lid off, heating the water on low medium heat for an hour to infuse the oil. I chose wanted to choose slow infusion because I didn't have the rest of the ingredients to finish my balm and creating this completely off grid, would have been kind of rewarding... But! I found some local beeswax and because I have dry skin from an old sunburn, I am eager to use to try it, so I went with the path of least waiting!
4. After two or three weeks of slow infusion or an hour on the stove, strain your dandelion infused oil and discard the flowers. I really squeezed it with the back of my tablespoon to get all the medicinal goodness out!