St John’s Wort / St Joan’s Wort

Hypericum perforatum
Also known as st joan’s wort, st j’s wort, perforate st john’s wort, common st john’s wort

$5.00

In stock

Description

St john’s wort is a beautiful, wild, tenacious herb that offers abundant beauty and medicine. St john’s wort was one of the very first herbs that I got to know on my personal journey of re-connecting to the land and has a very special place in my heart, not just for sentimental reasons but also for all the medicine she has selflessly given our family over the years.

St john’s wort is a short lived perennial plant that blooms brightly in the summer. In fact many cultures associate st john’s wort with summer solstice because, in many places it often blooms on summer solstice. St john’s wort is a sun medicine and is associated with the sun in many ways. Many herbalists ritualize collecting St. John’s wort medicine on summer solstice in order to honor the connection between st john’s wort, ourselves and father sun.

Indeed st john’s wort for some people, helps lift moods and may offer a sunny disposition, helping to relieve anxiety and depression. In this way st john’s wort works on subtle levels and is not a cure all for depression, but it has been found by many to help in raising spirits during emotionally difficult times. St john’s wort tincture has been called “sunshine in a bottle.”

St john’s wort is also a healer of all burns, including sun burns. In fact some prefer to call her st joan’s wort, because St. Joan (of Arc) knows a lot about burns. I use both names interchangeably.

Our family relies on st john’s wort oil applied topically to bring relief to our skin when it has been burned. Whether burned by fire, heat or sun, st john’s wort oil provides instant relief. Our whole family agrees that after applying st john’s wort oil, the stinging pain from minor burns immediately goes away and is replaced by a cool feeling. We reapply as often as needed but usually only once or a few times are needed.

But don’t wait to get a sunburn to apply st john’s wort oil. St john’s wort oil is also an effective herb to help prevent sun burns. The oil itself as well as st john’s wort offers some low amount of SPF, but it seems that st john’s wort teaches or helps our skin deal with sunlight. It’s not going to prevent all burns, so don’t go crazy exposing your skin too long to the harshest light of the summer day, but st john’s wort helps our skin be less likely to burn.

St john’s wort is also a powerful systemic antiviral when taken internally. Our family takes st john’s wort tincture at least several times throughout the day when we suspect we are exposed to a new virus, when we know our immune system is fighting a virus, and throughout the duration of the cold. St john’s wort is such a powerful antiviral that some AIDs sufferers have stopped the spread of AIDs in their body by taking very high doses of st john’s wort.

St john’s wort’s also to offers pain relief, specifically to help ease pain in nerve endings. Perhaps this is why st john’s wort can help ease pain from burns. Not only that, but st john’s wort applied topically can help heal minor wounds. Our family often reaches for st john’s wort when we have scratches, scrapes, bumps and bruises.

Indeed st john’s wort helps relieve the nerve pain and helps our wounds heal faster. St john’s wort oil massaged into the muscles can also help relieve sore, tired and overworked muscles. Pain relief is yet another way st john’s wort can help lift our spirits.

One of the fun things about making st john’s wort medicine is that the medicine turns a deep blood red. For a green plant with yellow blossoms, to transform into a rich blood red is pure magic and delights me every time. The red color comes from hypericin, the constituent from which the plant received its botanical genus name: Hypericum.

Hypericin is found in small glands on st john’s wort leaves and petals. Hold the leaves and petals up to the sunlight on a fine summer’s day and sure enough you will see the tiny dots. This is one of the ways to learn to identify the st john’s wort plant. Squeeze and rub a blossom between your fingers and they will become stained red. Sure enough, harvest enough st john’s wort blossoms and your finger tips will be stained a deep red, appearing almost purple.

There is something special about that deep red medicine that makes my heart sing anytime I pick it up. Its unique and special, but my senses and my body also know this is good st john’s wort medicine. When it is red, we know it is good medicine.

St john’s wort has a fair amount of tannins and I sometimes like to brew st john’s wort tea by simmering the fresh herb in water for 20 minutes or so. The tea is somewhat reminiscent of black tea. One time I served family and friends chilled st john’s wort tea as a sweetened iced tea and they loved it and said it reminded them of iced tea but with a lovely red color.

St john’s wort brewed in the same way and then fermented with sugar and yeast makes a fantastic beer or wine. We also enjoy cooking with st john’s wort vinegar, whether we infuse the herb in vinegar or brew a st john’s wort wine and then allow it to slowly transform into a vinegar. Both are delicious and uplifting.

In the garden st john’s wort is easy to grow once established and when allowed to go to seed will offer volunteers here and there. The plant starts rather skinny but can grow into a nice clump and a group of plants in fertile soil can offer abundant medicine and beauty. On the other hand st john’s wort is a strong weed capable of growing and thriving in dry, exposed soils with low organic matter. So we have a lot of options about where we can grow the plant both irrigated and un-irrigated.

The st john’s wort seeds we are sharing have adapted to our Southern Oregon climate with long, hot dry summers and should do well in hot and dry as well as cool and wet climates alike.

Unfortunately st john’s wort is one of those plants that has been made into an enemy and called an invasive weed (aka green terrorist). Those of us that take the time to get to know the plant realize that it is a big misunderstanding. The short story is that some cows suffered debilitating sun burns after eating dried st john’s wort. Unfortunately the cows were unsustainably managed and overgrazing their fields, likely in some cases also eating dry hay containing large amounts of dry st john’s wort herb. Ranchers raised an alarm and sentenced this plant to purgatory. As a result biological warfare was waged on st john’s wort in some areas by introducing a beetle that eats st john’s wort in the hope of checking it. Well the result is that st john’s wort and the beetle are both flourishing.

To me, this is another reminder that when we are trying to control nature, we are playing a fool’s errand and in the end we are just controlling ourselves, while making little boxes for our consciousness. Instead of controlling and waging war, I prefer to expand my consciousness and love this beautiful plant that offers dynamic, useful medicine abundantly. She thrives, builds soil, prevents erosion and offers habitat in places where other plants have difficulty growing, often as a result of human disturbances no less. I think it’s another reason to support regenerative ranching, which by the way also supports healthy cows and carbon sequestration, instead of supporting conventional grazing practices which often results in overgrazed and compacted land where grass has harder and harder time thriving and growing lushly. This is why the strongest weeds, like st john’s wort, often come in to overgrazed fields: to help repair the soil (a medicine for Earth).

St john’s wort really is an amazing herb and there is so much to learn about his beautiful versatile plant. If you are curious to dive deeper into getting to know st. john’s wort as a plant and as medicine, I highly recommend checking out: The St. John’s/Joan’s wort Conference – The Hypericum Conference: Time to End the Nonsense 

We are so excited to share st john’s wort seeds with you!

Note: We cannot ship st john’s wort seeds to California, Colorado, Montana, South Dakota or Washington due to noxious weed laws and the ongoing war against st john’s wort.

Details

Lifecycle: Perennial
Lifespan: 3-5+ years
Hardiness zones: 3-10 (USDA)
Habitats: Fields, forest edges, roadsides, grasslands, disturbed soil in Europe, Africa and Asia
Plant size: 2 1/2 ft wide x 3 1/2 ft tall
Light: Full sun to part shade
Soil: All soil types, marginal soils
Water: Moist or dry soil, drought tolerant
Seeds per packet: 300+ seeds

Seed Starting

St john’s wort seeds will have an improved germination rate with 30-60+ days of moist cold stratification. St John’s Wort seeds require light to germinate. Surface sow the tiny seeds in early spring and lightly tamp into the soil to make good soil contact. Try to prevent soil from covering the seeds. Keep soil evenly moist until seeds germinate. Transplant into their final locations when the plants are a few inches tall.

Cultivation

While st john’s wort grows quite well in part shade conditions, it will make more flowers and really thrives in full sun. St John’s Wort plants start out small and skinny in their first year and will need to be weeded to make sure faster growing plants don’t shade it out.

On the other hand, st johns wort plants are weeds that grow well in marginal/thin and dry, un-irrigated soils where most other plants struggle to grow. So if you grow your st john’s wort in marginal, exposed soils weeding may be minimal or may not be needed.

Other than their small initial stature st john’s wort plants are easy to grow and require little care. Regular pruning of flowers, such as in harvesting for medicine, regular water and fertile soil may help extend the plants’ lifespan.

St john’s wort plants creep underground by way of rhizomes and will send up new plants a few inches away, slowly forming a large clump.

Harvest

Harvest the flowering tops of the st john’s wort plant when it is in full bloom to make herbal medicines. It is important not to dry the plant and to make remedies from the fresh plant. There is some question whether dried st john’s wort herb (especially consumed in large amounts) can cause sun sensitivity in some individuals.

Propagation

Established st john’s wort plants can be divided in the fall through spring.

Seed Saving

Thresh st john’s wort seeds by bending the stalks over a clean bucket and lightly banging the seed heads against the bucket walls to release the seeds from their cups. Screen the seeds with a fine screen from petals, bugs and chaff. Winnow if cleaner seed is desired.

Additional information

Weight0.007 lbs
Dimensions4.5 × 3.25 × .05 in

Reviews

  1. Tara V

    First time growing St John’s Wort – The seeds had great germination, and the seedlings are growing fast!

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