Enchanted Plants

“Guided by fairy folk and Ventura’s own botanical wisdom, this book is an enchanting walk on the path of green magic and folklore.” —Coby Michael, author of The Poison Path Herbal   From fairy tales to your garden, Enchanted Plants is an illustrated treasure trove of the lore and magic in the kingdom of plants.   Take a walk through mystical, magical, and folkloric gardens and discover the plants and flowers that have captured our hearts and minds for centuries. Will you dare to pick a golden apple or seize the perfect rose? Will you sneak through the gilded gates of the poison garden where plants both alluring and life-saving intertwine?  From the baneful bog to the garden gate, plant lover and lover of the bizarre Varla Ventura brings together forgotten lore of plants for the ultimate romp through a botanical wonderland, including excerpts from fairy tales and a lively discussion of each plant’s legendary magical and medicinal properties. Don’t forget your scissors.  Enchanted Plants is arranged by general environment: cultivated plants and edibles; toxic plants; meadowlands; the woods; marshes and swamps; and tropical plants. Each chapter contains a cultivated selection of plants, arranged alphabetically by popular common name, with additional information including botanical name, common names, folklore, ethnobotanical properties, magical and occult properties, and modern usage if applicable.

Varla A. Ventura is the author of several books, including Fairies, Pookas, and Changelings: A Complete Guide to the Wild and Wicked Enchanted Realm. As a lover of all things strange, Varla's interests extend into the weirdness and magic of the plant kingdom. With a deep fascination for folklore and medicinal plants, she has been studying herbalism and botany for more than thirty years. Her plant knowledge comes from a combination of experimentation, formal classes in botany, and working in the horticultural industry for fifteen years. She ran a retail nursery in Portland, Oregon, as well as in San Francisco, California, and operated her own landscaping business for more than ten years. She is also the botanical brain behind Rotten Botany, a website dedicated to unusual plants. When not writing, she can be found wandering around the Minnesota woods and tending her poison garden.