Chestnut Herbal School

botany

A person wearing an apron holds two jars filled with dried herbs, standing in front of a home herbal apothecary cabinet.
Last updated on November 13th, 2023

10 Best Herbs to Start Your Home Herbal Apothecary

Our apothecary at the Chestnut School is no mere medicine cabinet; it holds the stories and healing signatures of herbs gathered from local wildlands, cross-country travels, and our school gardens. The medicine in its bottles is much more than roots, leaves, and bark. It’s the essence of fields and forests, birdsong and butterfly kisses, babbling streams and fertile dirt, sunshine, and cool afternoon breezes. Are you curious about how to start a home apothecary of your own? We’ve simplified the process by choosing the ten best herbs to start your home herbal apothecary.

Juliet Blankespoor teaching medicinal herb gardening at her farm in NC. Photograph by Emily Nichols.
Last updated on October 6th, 2023

Becoming An Herbalist: Juliet Blankespoor’s Dance With The Plants

Stamens, stigmas, and anthers were my first dates in what would become a lifelong love affair with plants. Today, I plan my vacations around botanical gardens and keep random pieces of colorful bark in my pocket in case I need an icebreaker in an awkward social situation. Three decades into this journey as a plant–human matchmaker, I’ve owned almost every herbal business you can imagine: an herbal nursery, a medicinal products business, a clinical practice, and now an online herbal school specializing in bioregional, hands-on herbalism.

Cannonball tree flower.
Last updated on November 14th, 2023

Cannonball tree – sea slug-esque flowers, Shiva’s tree and pre-columbian transoceanic voyages

I had seen pictures of the cannonball tree (Couroupita guianensis, Lecythidaceae) in my tropical plant books for years, always with its large distinctive cannonball-esque fruits. But I had never seen a picture of the flowers, and so the first time I laid eyes on its gargantuan blooms at Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Florida, I was completely and utterly awed and enchanted.

Red powder puff.
Last updated on November 14th, 2023

Even Red Powder Puff Has Bad Hair Days

The showiness of this flower does not come from its petals, but instead from its male flower parts. The filaments are the stalks of the stamens (pollen bearing structures). In this flower they are doing double duty by also attracting pollinators. This genus has diminutive petals but many of the powder puff-type legume flowers in the tropics have lost their petals and only have showy stamens.

Pollinator on an anemone bloom.
Last updated on March 7th, 2024

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.
Last updated on November 14th, 2023

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 [...]