Lavender

It is a pleasure to celebrate and share the enchanting
fragrant benefits and matchless qualities of one of nature’s
greatest gifts.

Lavender is highly revered as a garden plant, the hardy varieties making great contributions to our western Pennsylvania gardens. Various lavender cultivars flourish in gardens almost anywhere on Earth. The benefits of this plant satisfy ALL of the desires that an herb lover can dream up - intoxicating fragrance, lovely flowers, therapeutic aroma, effective garden plant, handy in craft making and a culinary delight. What more could we want? It is the intense and lovely FLOWERS of the plant which are utilized. They make their appearance in shades of deep purple through light lilac, pale pink and silvery-white. You may begin cutting the flowers stems the first or second week of June every year, here in western Pennsylvania.

Here is just a taste of lavender’s many uses -

Make a wonderful VINEGAR with the flowers, which is useful ~
~ In your bath, to nourish and soothe your skin and bring you instant relaxation. (1 to 2 cups per tub of water)

~ In the final rinse of your clothes-washer, to dissolve the soap residue, and impart the fresh, clean aroma toyour laundry (about 1 ½ cups per full load)

~ To bring sunburn relief, put some in a spray bottle, mixhalf-and-half with water. Spritz on the skin wherever it hurts. Both vinegar AND lavender are good for theskin, lavender especially healing for burns.
THE PROCEDURE: Take a quart mason jar and place in it
about 1½ cups of lavender flowers, either fresh or dried.
Then fill the jar with cider vinegar. Put a plastic lid
on it, or line any metal lid with a baggie before you
place it on the jar. Set in a sunny window and shake
every other day. Strain out the flowers.
Start using in about 2 weeks.

The FLOWERS can also be used in sweet sachets, potpourrisand herb pillows.
 

A few uses for LAVENDER ESSENTIAL OIL ~
~ A blend of lavender and grapefruit oils is good for at the office andfor students of all ages. Lavender creates a calm, tranquil atmosphere while grapefruit stimulates the senses and clears up stale air.

~ Add a few drops to a piece of terry cloth and toss into the clothes dryer - scent-sational!

~ To set a calming mood anywhere, add a few drops to the hot, meltedwax of a burning candle.

 

Fascinating Lavender Story

I am always excited to find information about my favorite herb, Lavender.
I am delighted to share with you a little story that I found recently in a book
entitled “The Art of Aromatherapy” by Robert Tisserand.

First, a little background:
Many years ago, a chemist in the perfumer company Gattefosse, in Grasse, France, coined the word “Aromatherapy”. Mr. Gattefosse became engrossed in research of the essential oils from Herbs and their flowers, after discovering that Lavender essential oil quickly took away the pain and healed a severe burn on his hand, with no scarring.
His research led him to conclude that many essential oils are therapeutically more effective in their wholeness, that they are when reduced to synthetic, man-made substitutes.

In 1938 Gattefosse published an article describing research done by his colleague, Mr. Goddisart, at his Aromatherapy clinic in Los Angeles: “He cites remarkable cures of skin cancer, gangrene, and osteomalacia, the successful healing of wounds which had refused to heal for years, facial ulcers which had been healed in record time, and ‘bites from the Black Widow Spider until now considered to be fatal, are rendered harmless, thanks to the antitoxic power of lavender’. In fact the lavender oil combines chemically with the spider venom to form an innocuous compound. This also applies to snake and insect bites…”

I often recommend that if you only have one essential oil in your medicine chest, it should be lavender. Please feel free to go to my website to discover more ways to use Lavender essential oil:
or to order the essential oil:

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

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