The renovations at the castle here are coming along nicely.
So well in fact i am at the point of starting the garden area at the front.
The actual house is medieval in origin and so i had always thought about making an apothecarists garden or even a poison garden then i just wondered about making a magic garden.

Ideas ideas ideas hmmm.

So my question to you is if you were making a magical garden what plants would you plant in it and why?

[ravinclaw]

I recognize some of those. I think monkshood is the same as wolfsbain. (could be wrong, but I think it is) I read somewhere that if you wrap wolfsbane in a lizard skin you can turn invisable. Holy is said to ward off evil spirits and I think protect against lightning.

[Levinthross]

yep you got it all LG
of course though if you have the space for it you should grow. Acacia. Mandrake.mugwort. mint. vervain. poppys. yarrow. roses. honeysuckle.
mustard. if you can find it grains of paradise flowers. hydrangea. rue. john the conquerer root(ipomelea jalapa). hyssop. angel trumpet flower.
just to name a few

[Muerte]

  I take it the garden will be an outdoor one?  If this is the case then care should be taken in choosing your plants to avoid loosing them.  Also one needs to keep in mind the amount of sunlight certain plants need for optimal growth.  (Also, this being a "Magical" garden one would also need to know the proper care and harvest procedures for each to reap the most optimal benifits from each plant.)

  An auspisious project freind and I wish you all the best.

Yes the garden will be outside. It gets pretty hot and dry here in the summer, hard frosts til March, fair amount of rain, just right for growing grapes and making wine sort of climate.

Also i want the garden to be attractive. Some plants just look wierd next to each other, visually it doesnt work.

A few of you have listed plants to include but i want to know why. Extra bonus points for plants people have actual experience in using.

Sage is great, there are more then one sort, and their general use is quite wide, cleaning spaces with their fumes, as a mouth wash, for fresh wounds too. Thymus serpyllum is great for problems with respiratory organs, stomach, and also relaxes when stressed. Vaccinium myrtillus is great in curing dhiarea in small children, also very good in treating inflammation. Ocimum basilicum helps with gas, insomnia, stress and lack of appetite. Sempervivum tectorum is great when treating burned skin and for long time was the only remedy for ear inflammation. Symphytum officinale is great with broken bone conditions, boils and open wounds, cause the alantoin in them is helping in disinfection of the wound, creating the new tissue and drying the pus. Crataegus laevigata is awesome with all sorts of heart conditions. Mentha piperita is very common, helps with stomach problems most. Artemisia absinthium (main ingredient of my fav beverage XD) is very good with strong stomach problems, lack of appetite, but is very good in general immunity of the system...... there are a lot of herbs out there OB, maybe u should tell us what u want of ur garden to be, that would ease the search

Salvia is a most fascinating plant. I have a large specimen (2m+)of the divinorum type.  I even thought about writing a guide on how to use the plant to actually see the future. Its actually easy once you know how.

I guess i am interested in what might be called halluninatory plants.

Recently I have experimented with a few species of plants for use in dreaming. Some very cuious and quite mixed results from these.

If you have a plant that you have direct experience and knowledge of (note knowledge in the true occult sense) i would be happy to accept cuttings. For a plant to be truly magical i find they tend to have real lineages or roots behind them.

Mmm, salvia divinorum, such a great teacher! Did u work with Morning Glory too? I managed to get some seeds, first planned to try them out, but then decided to plant them and get more before i do so. Could u share ur experience with sage please? Im very interested in trying that one, but seems impossible to get the seeds or baby plants here for some reason, although im sure old people in villages still have them (but they dont use internet so i cant get info). Could u send some sage to me? XD Ill send ya Morning Glory seeds in return

Also, here we have Hyoscyamus niger, its really very dangerous to try it, very hard to measure the right dosage, so if u use too much it leads to unrepairable madness.

The plant, recorded as Herba Apollinaris, was used to yield oracles by the priestesses of Apollo

Henbane can be toxic, even fatal, to animals in low doses. Its name dates at least to 1265. The origins of the word are unclear but "hen" probably originally meant death rather than referring to chickens. Hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and other tropane alkaloids have been found in the foliage and seeds of the plant. Common effects of henbane ingestion in humans include hallucinations, dilated pupils, restlessness, and flushed skin. Less common symptoms such as tachycardia, convulsions, vomiting, hypertension, hyperpyrexia and ataxia have all been noted.

I tried morning glory once, just a very small amount of the seed, yes it has quite an effect but i experienced a slight nausea with it.
Because of this i never bothered with it again. I know that many seed suppliers actually coat the exterior of the seed with something that is meant to discourage such use. Its a beautiful looking plant though, especially the 'heavenly blue' variety which is the strain with the hallucinogenic effect.

Re salvia perhaps i should send you some info via pm when it is ready.
I have never encountered anything on the subject even remotely similar to the info i have on it. Even from the discoverer of the chemical salvinorum whom i wrote to about my findings. He just didnt believe that what i said was possible, dismissed it as a shamanic story. Thing is i tend to live my stories!!!!

Morning Glory and most of other seeds have their own protection layer, but there is a thing called filtering, there are two ways to do it, easiest is dry one (not really dry just not using chemicals other then water). U gotta blend them real short, then use the cloth and filter it through it, the seed cover stays on it, and active matter melts in water. And that is what u drink, no side effects on stomach.

Ill be waiting for ur pm

So no nausea if you eliminate the seed covering?

Exactly

ps: i forgot to write that once u blend it and pour water in, u gotta leave it for some 4-5 hours so the active thing melts and stays in water.

Ok morning glory now makes it into the garden here. It'll look good growing up a tower dont you think?

I actually like the idea of certain 'in the know' people looking at the plants in the garden and privately understanding the nature of the place. Nothing actually has to be said. Its a silent private understanding between members of a specialised knowledge set.

By the way i have just sent some salvia seeds. You may understand this more after i send you a PM about it.
Salvia divinorum has a very unique propogation method. Its a sorcerers plant and therefore sends out psychic runners via non material realms. This one way this lineage plant propogates itself.  It does not grow naturally anywhere. It has propogated itself like this for thousands of years now. Just one of its secrets!

I like Morning Glory as fence flower, and soo true about this silent understanding, i find most of my seeds in forgotten gardens, which are so not hidden but no one knows what lies there, what treasures are growing right before their eyes :O

And now im on my heightend alert, expecting them to come to me

God i love gardens.

Imagine a garden where the plants and flowers are all alive to unimaginable levels. Plants we have the most intimate relationships with, teachers, friends, lovers, comforters healers etc. Imagine the energy of each mixing together like an orchestra of visible tangible metaphysical music that we can access just by being near. Some days we can wander through this multi layered landscape just by being quiet, like a pocket universe inside the walls, portals to the unimaginable everywhere.

Sorry if I get a little lyrical at times, its a passion i guess.