The four ducklings are growing fast. Ducklings often make a whistling sound. They’ll whistle when they are afraid or excited. They come whistling for breakfast.
The sweet annie is up and getting ready to bloom. This plant has such a lovely scent, every part of it. It’s a sweet, soft mix of clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, and other spices. The leaves are delicate and dance in the slightest of breezes.
The chart above is from Artemisia annua Wikipedia entry. It lists the phenolics discovered in this fragrant herb. One of them, Rhamnetin, is an O-methylated flavonol that can be isolated from cloves. It’s like this one plant is a drug store all of its own.
I’m curious, do you use sweet annie as an herb, or do you grow it for its fragrance? Do you have just a few plants or do you let it self sow?
I first planted it fourteen or thirteen years ago. I got a small plant from someone nearby. Each year I let it go to seed in the fall. The following spring, a handful of plants come back. I grow it for its beauty and fragrance. I’ll try and collect the seed this year and next year plant a full bed of it. Just pinching the leaves softly with your fingers leaves makes your hands smell nice.
So here in the PNW it’s an annual? I would like to try it, but was just checking to make sure it wasn’t a garden thug. Thanks for your response 🙂
Yes, it is an annual. The seeds are tiny. I remember one spring I had many Sweet Annie seedlings come up, and it was so nice weeding them. Each one I pulled gave off such a wonderful fragrance. It likes sun and the area where I planted them years ago isn’t as sunny now as various trees have grown up in the area. But it still comes up each year. This fall will be a good time to save the seed to start a bed in a sunny location.
I would be leery of making a tea with it. According to WebMD, “Sweet Annie is LIKELY UNSAFE when taken by mouth during pregnancy. Animal studies show that drugs made in the laboratory from artemisinin, a chemical found in Sweet Annie, can cause death of the fetus or birth defects when used early in the pregnancy.”
Thank you for the information. I ordered some seeds and will plant them in the spring. My intention was to grow it mainly for its foliage and scent. I’ll leave the tea making and medicinal uses to scientists and more adventuresome types!