Straws and Plants

We reuse straws at our house, but imagine having a sterling silver drinking straw, so classy! And a great gift (hint hint) can be found at Silver Groves.


Sky Nursery blew us away! Seriously the best we've seen thus far in Seattle. One of the things we stumbled upon was "Puerto Rican Oregano". We were so excited to get it home and make a bunch of Puerto Rican food and mojitos too, of course. Well, then I started researching the plant and discovered this: (and now have no idea what to do with it?!)

"It's not oregano, and it's no relation, either. I know it as Mother of Herbs. It's Coleus amboinicus, also known as Plectranthus amboinicus, commonly known by any number of names including:

Queen of Herbs, Five in One Herb, Five Seasons Herb, Allherb, Country Borage, Indian Borage, Five Spice Herb, Chinese Three in One, Broad Leafed Thyme, Spanish Thyme, Spanish Sage, Puerto Rican Oregano.

It's the herb you use when you don't know what herb to use! Tough as old nails, can get weedy, but not that hard to control. Groundcover, prefers full sun. Flower spikes may get as long as 1 metre, quite attractive in a stark sort of way."

"Chew a leaf for sore throat and coughs. Make a tea for bronchitis, asthma, coughs, viral conditions, to relieve indigestion and stomach cramps, convulsions, as a liver tonic and for pain relief. A leaf can been rubbed or laid on the forehead, to relieve headaches.

Some years ago, a lass who joined in a herb course, shared her experience with mother of herbs. A girl friend and she decided to make it as a tea, one evening. They drank the tea and went to sleep ‘like lights’. When the lass’s husband arrived home, he found them asleep on the couch, just where they had been drinking their tea. Later, when he found out what had put them so soundly to sleep, he was intrigued with the possibility of using mother of herbs to help people with insomnia. As he was a doctor, he decided to use it with a number of patients who had been on sleeping pills for many years, with the results that they were able to come off drugs. Over the years, I have shared this herb with numerous people who suffer with sleeplessness, and many have been helped. Robert, said that a leaf chopped in a cup of boiling water was sufficiently strong to send him soundly to sleep. He had been on sleeping pills for a long time, but did not need them any longer, as the herb worked wonderfully."