Hepatica

This is the time in the summer that I visit garden centres looking for bargains. Sometimes, I find real gems. Yesterday's find was a Hepatica, a wildflower which is a member of the buttercup family that will be wonderful next spring when it blooms alongside the spring bulbs. It is also known as Liver Wort because of the shape of the leaves. I will have to make sure that I mark where it is and remove the leaves that are covering it before the snow falls otherwise, I can missing the blooms.

Apparently, Hepatica is named from its leaves, which like the human liver (Greek hepar) have three lobes. It was once used as a medicinal herb. Owing to the doctrine of signatures, the plant was thought an effective treatment for liver disorders. Although poisonous in large doses- how much did people try before they figured this out? The leave and flowers may be used as an astringent, demulcent for slow-healing injuries and as a diuretic.

The other plants that I purchased yesterday are the common begonia-must order some next year from a catalogue and coleus- have some spots that still need to be filled in. I have never seen the begonias that I saw in a town in California just north of Mendicino where Murder She Wrote was filmed in nurseries in the GTA area. Those begonias were magnificent. Unfortunately, that visit was before the days of digital cameras or I would be posting pictures of those wonderful flowers all the time.

Hoping for a dry day so that I can get out and do some planting.

Happy gardening.