Chestnut Herbal School
Pollinator on an anemone bloom.

Anemone: Medicine, Poison, Pollen, and Melodrama

Anemone: Medicine, Poison, Pollen, and MelodramaWritten by Juliet Blankespoor with Meghan Gemma Photographed by Juliet Blankespoor Courageous of bloom, anemone often endures the wind and freezing temperatures of early spring or fall (depending on the species). I first fell in love with anemone while visiting the high boreal and alpine expanses of the Rocky Mountains [...]
Flower collage.

An Invitation

An InvitationWritten and Photographed by Juliet Blankespoor Attention all fleuraphiles, fleuravores, and fleurologists: I formally invite you to join me in celebration of the juicy colors, textures and stories of plant reproduction. I will be featuring a flower every Friday for a year in my not-so-originally-named A Year in Flowers The flowers will be seasonal [...]
Large milkweed seed bug.

Large Milkweed Seed Bugs

Large Milkweed Seed BugsWritten and Photographed by Juliet Blankespoor Large milkweed seed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) - I recently photographed some colorful milkweed bugs in my garden and decided to repost a small piece I had previously posted about these gorgeous gregarious insects with the new photos, figuring most of you didn't read the original essay, [...]
Close up of a pollinator visiting passionflower.

Passionflower – Ecology, Cultivation, Botany, and Medicinal and Edible Uses

Passionflower is ecologically intriguing, drop-dead gorgeous, and an incredibly useful herbal medicine and wild edible. So I introduce this passionflower materia medica with some ecological, botanical, and cultivation snippets specific to this amazingly charismatic native vine, and hope that you wont skip this juiciness for the medicinal information.

Herbal ice cubes.

Herbal Ice Cubes

How many times have you found yourself in this embarrassingly uncomfortable situation? You invite a treasured friend over on a hot summer afternoon and reach for the herbal iced tea you have lovingly prepared from fresh aromatic herbs in your garden, but then you realize with sinking humiliation that you only have plain Jane ice cubes on hand. You wish you could just go home, but unfortunately, you are already home. So you serve the plain ice cubes anyway and brace yourself for the gossip that will surely ensue from your frigid faux pas. “ What kind of herbalist serves ordinary ice cubes with their herbal refreshments?” Totally avoid that scenario, and stock up on these fancy pants herbal ice cubes instead.