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Mullein
Verbascum thapsus
Also known as common mullein, great mullein, flannel plant, torches, king’s candle
In stock
Description
Mullen is a very strong, but gentle weed giving beauty, habitat, nourishment, tools and medicine. Mullein, being very cold hardy, grows wild in most of the temperate north America. We also invite mullein to grow abundantly both in and especially around our gardens.
Take a season to get to know mullein and he is a hard plant to dislike. His giant leaves are so soft and velvety, offering more unique texture and shapes to the garden. Mullein starts as a large low growing rosette of velvety soft leaves, but in the second year sends his thick flower stalk high in the sky. Especially in numbers, mullein stalks make a bold statement.
We enjoy mullein for food and medicine. While mullein’s leaves are not exactly palatable with all their fine hairs, we collect and dry the leaves to be used as herbal infusions. We brew one ounce of dried herb in a quart of boiling water overnight. The resulting infusion is so dark. The fine hairs can irritate some people’s throats, and that can be avoided by straining the infusion through a tightly woven cloth, coffee filters or several layers of cheesecloth.
Mullein infusion is mineral rich and is deeply nourishing to the whole body. However, mullein has a strong affinity for the lungs and regularly drinking mullein infusion helps build lung strength. Mullein infusion is a gentle but unique flavor and tastes like the plant smells. Mullein’s flavor has really grown on me and drinking the infusion reminds me of smelling the plant in the garden, and vice versa—such a delight! I enjoy drinking mullein infusion with a splash of milk.
Dried mullein leaf smoke is an expectorant and can help lungs expectorate phlegm. I’ve breathed mullein smoke before and indeed it does help me expectorate tough coughs and relieve some asthma. If you don’t want to smoke mullein leaf in a pipe, you can simply put some mullein leaf in a bowl, light it so that it is smoking and then breathe in the smoke.
Mullein leaves are huge and make amazing poultices because they cover a large are of skin. You can use them as a poultice to help hold other herbs in place or by themselves. Mullein leaves are nervine and can help relieve pain when used externally, especially with regard to the spine or neck.
Mullein blossoms infused in oil have a reputation for helping to relieve ear aches and ear infections.
In the past mullein’s tall second year flower stalks with downy surface have been coated with wax, fat or tar perhaps, and used as torches, quite effectively. Mullein also has a reputation for being “nature’s toilet paper” due to his soft flexible leaves with wide surface area.
Mullein is a strong weed and grows where many plants cannot. Mullein has no problem growing in soil with very little organic matter and thrives in soil that had just been burned. In the wild settings mullein grows well in places where soil has been eroded or burned.
In permaculture, daikon radish has a reputation for sending huge taproots into the soil to build fertility, even in heavy clay soils. But I found that daikon radishes really need consistent moisture and/or fertile topsoil to do that deep digging or they simply do not thrive or get big. On the other, hand mullein thrives in dry heavy soils even when regular moisture is not available.
That is how I am learning to tend and work with mullein—I collect and broadcast mullein seed in dry areas with low fertility so that he can provide shade and improve soil, block grass and offer medicine, all while not receiving any irrigation in our hot arid summers. That’s incredible!
Mullein is a great choice to not only build soil, but also shade the soil, block grass and other weeds from growing, and help protect and hold exposed soil from erosion. In that sense mullein can be allied with in a variety of ways—as a cover crop, companion plant or main crop.
Thanks to mullein’s fine hairs covering his leaves and flower stalks mullein, though quite nutritious, is very deer resistant.
As a beloved weed, mullein works well as a volunteer and we are exclusively wild tending mullein in our gardens, and especially outside our gardens and on drier edges where other plants are hard to grow.
We are so excited to share mullein seeds with you!
Note: We cannot ship mullein seeds to South Dakota or Washington due to noxious weed laws.
Details
Lifecycle: Biennial
Lifespan: Two seasons
Hardiness zones: 3-8 (USDA)
Habitats: Disturbed ground, fields and dry soils in Europe and temperate Asia
Plant size: 3 ft wide x 7 ft tall
Light: Full sun
Soil: All soil types, marginal soils
Water: Moist or dry soil, drought tolerant
Seeds per packet: 200+ seeds
Seed Starting
Mullein seeds will have an improved germination rate with 30-60+ days of moist cold stratification. Surface sow and tamp lightly into the soil. Keep soil moist until plants germinate. When they are large enough to handle prick out plants and plant them in their final position. If not direct sowing, don’t wait too long to transplant because mullein roots like to go deep fast.
Cultivation
Mullein will thrive in garden soil but also grows really well in disturbed, even compacted soils where other plants have a hard time growing. Mullein doesn’t need much weeding except from the most vigorous plants. mullein’s leaves will quickly grow large and shade out low growing competition.
Harvest
Harvest the leaves from the first year plant anytime in summer through fall. Harvest the whole flowering stalk from the second year plant when it is in bloom, but before it has gone to seed. Harvest individual blossoms from flowering plants in their second year.
Propagation
Mullein is grown from seed.
Seed Saving
Thresh second year mullein seed stalks after they flowered and made seeds by bending the stalk over a clean bucket and banging it on the bucket walls to release seeds from their “cups”. Screen seeds from larger debris and fluff. Winnow dust and small bits of fluff, if desired for cleaner seed.
Additional information
Weight | 0.007 lbs |
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Dimensions | 4.5 × 3.25 × .05 in |
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