Go to Home Page
                                               Intro Mary Garden
Hagerman Woman Expert Herbalist
.

Herbalist Bonnie Roberson uses a variety of plants such as fennel,
angelica, horse's heel, monk's hood and feverfew for cooking tea
and even insect repellent.



By Stephanie Schorow, Times News writer

Times News, Twin Falls, ldaho             Sunday, June 29, 1980


  HAGERMAN - Walking with Bonnie Roberson through her garden is
like running your fingers over bottles on a spice rack.

  "This is rosemary," says the 72-year old herbalist. She cups her
hands around the small plant and strokes the leaves to release the
pungent fragrance.

  "This is lemon balm. You have to crush the herbs to smell them."
With the firm grip of hands used to the touch of leaf and earth,
she crumbles a frond for a sharp whiff of lemon.

  "These are rose hips," she says, stopping at a thorny bush.
"They get large as a crab apple," pointing to the bulge on the
stem below a bloom.  "See this foliage, it's like leather."

  "Now that white flower, that's a Madonna lily.  You say surely it
isn't a herb, but surely it is.  In the Middle Ages, people used
to rub the bulb on burns."

  "This is horseradish. We make our own horseradish sauce."

  She surveys her one-acre plot of herbs, spices, exotic plants,
fruit trees - all growing in exuberant abundance, all with unique
properties and smells.

  "If the wind weren't blowing you could hardly stand the scent,"
she remarks.

  Thyme, sage, garlic, oris root, French scallots, camomile,
fennel, celery seeds - 300 to 400 kinds of herbs grow in Bonnie
Roberson's garden in Hagerman.

  For 40 years Mrs. Roberson has planted, grown, dried and studied
herbs.  She now is probably as expert on the subject as any of the
nation's herbalists.

  In hundreds of articles for trade journals and magazines she has
researched the properties of herbs and traced the evolution of
their distinct names.

  She grows English lavender "that comes from Shakespeare's
garden."  A U.S. Department of Agriculture man brought her some
shoots from the Bard's garden in Engiand.

  She uses one of her plants to make her own pleasantly-scented
insect repellent.  The wormwood plant (the name wormwood plant
mentioned in the Blble) can be crushed, blended and used as an
organic insect spray. It's also used to make the bitter liquor,
absinthe.

  "You drink a mint tea.  I have 30 kinds of mint that all taste
different," she said.  Curly mint, monk's mint and orange mint are
three examples.

  By her garden gate is a "money plant" used in dried flower
arrangements. Its coin-shaped leaves quiver when she walks into
the garden.

  Mrs. Roberson dries herbs for her own use: she does not sell
either the dried herbs or the live plants.  Nor does she grow many
or recommend any medicinal herbs, a form of holistic medicine
receiving new attention.

  She concentrates on her research into herbs and plant symbolism.
In particular she has done extensive work on the "Mary's Garden,"
a kind of garden developed in the Middle Ages, in which symbolic
plants were used to glorify Mary, mother of Jesus.

  Mary's Gardens are built around a statue of the Madonna and
feature plants whose ancient names derive from Catholic symbolism:
as marigold, for Mary's Gold; foxglove, Our Lady's Glove; bleeding
heart, Our Lady's Heart; and ladyslipper balsam, Our Lady's
Earrings.

  An area of her yard was once devoted to a large Mary's Garden,
and she once exhibited a miniature of the garden at the annual
meeting ot the Herb Society of Amerlca in Washington, D.C.

  Mrs. Roberson is fascinated not only with herbs themselves, but
their history and the etymology of their names.  Her modest home
is crammed with hundreds of books on herbs and herbology.

  She also grows increasingly rare kinds of roses - smaller roses
that have more fragrance than today's varieties, bred for size not
scent.

  Mrs. Roberson gestures at a white rose with an unusual
arrangement of tighly bunched white petals.  "This was Queen
Josephine's favorite rose.  Napoleon's wife was a devoted
gardener."

  In another corner, "This is the sweet briar rose. The leaves
smell like apples."

  Nearby is a "maiden's blush rose," its long vines arching under
the weight of their growth.  Its name recalls the Blessed Virgin's
response to the angel's message, "You will conceive in your womb,
and bear a son."

  Mrs. Roberson has researched rose fragrance for the American
Rose Society, as now breeders are trying to bring back scent to
the large blooms.

  She uses the dried petals to make potpourri or sweetly scented
saches.  She also pours warm honey over petals to make rose honey:
"It's like nectar of the gods."

  Angelica plants tower over the roses.  These biennnials,
producing baseball size starburst blooms, can be used for making
candies or a sweet wine.  Mrs. Roberson doesn't care for the taste
of either, but she likes the plant so much she continues to grow
it.

  Besides, she is in contact with other herbalists from all over
the world, exchanging ideas and seeds. If someone needs some
angelica seeds, for example, she could provide them.

  Mrs. Roberson first became interested in herbs during the 1930's
when the war made herbs and spices difficult to obtain.   When a
serious illness kept Mrs. Roberson confined, she just about
"climbed the walls" until her interest in cooking with herbs led
to her interest in growing them.  At that time, few gardens
included herbs; now herb sections are becoming more frequent.

  While her husband, Ernie, worked for the Idaho Power Co., she
worked on her herbs.  Her husband is now retired and her son lives
in Twin Falls.

  In the 1960's she planted a "Fragrance Garden," marked with
Braille lables, for the Idaho State School of the Deaf and Blind.
She planted 34 plants wlth distinct characteristics that could be
handled and tasted without any harmful effects.

  Even though she has donated the plants in her large outdoor
Mary's Garden to a Catholic organization, and sometimes the weeds
get a little ahead in the herb garden, Mrs. Roberson still spends
four to five hours a day on her garden and her research.

  The symbolism of the Mary's Garden continues to be her focal
point.  She has designed a variety of "miniature" Mary's Gardens
that can be grown in the home.

  As for growing herbs outdoors, "If you want to make a plant
strong smelling, make it fight for a living.  Keep it dry," she
says. That is, don't overwater.

  Also, "Pick herbs in their prime."  She recommends herbs be
dried out of direct sunlight on a window screen.  When they are
put away in jars, growers should make sure they are kept dry,
otherwise they will mold.  Then they are ready for vegetables,
meats, salads and other foods.

  "What a joy it is to use your own thing instead of something out
of a paste board box," Mrs. Roberson says.



Reprinted with permission