Relaxing in our backyard on a Sunday afternoon, we tend not to think much about just how much work our garden plants must do to survive every hour of every day. Think about chomping caterpillars, slithering slugs, swarming aphids, even the acid burn of puppy pee. The life-threatening barrage is relentless. Don’t let their innocent looks fool you; under those pretty petals, flowers are very tough survivors. And there’s none more street smart than the polemonium, better known as Jacob’s ladder.
Beating the evolutionary odds requires some special skills and polemonium have a few clever tricks up their sleeves. Their success is in their chemistry, which is why they’ve been revered as an effective treatment for wounds, bites and stings for millennia, putting them front and centre in every herbal since Discoriedes great De Materia Medica. It’s also the reason why they can be found on every continent on earth.
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July 2005
Jacob's Ladder |
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| To put a smile on any child's face have them smell this flower: it's scent is exactly like grape bubble gum. |
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More prosaically, crushed polemonium leaves also make an excellent shampoo. Modern science confirms why: they contain saponens, which, with their anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and detergent properties, leave hair super clean, soft and shiny.
And, like any good shampoo, it comes with a delightful scent – polemonium smells exactly like grape bubble gum. With both these very practical uses, it’s no wonder this flower was a staple in everyday life on both sides of the Atlantic.
Over the centuries, as gardening evolved from the purely practical to the aesthetic, polemonium joined a handful of plants that became symbolically associated with the Christian church. It started with the brief but powerful biblical story of Jacob’s vision as he slept in the desert: he dreamed he saw a ladder set on the earth, the top of which reached to heaven. |
| On this ladder, angels climbed up and down, with God at the top looking down saying “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go.” Polemonium got its common name from its shape: the leaves are made up of a series of leaflets that look a lot like a mini ladder. To this day Jacob’s ladder will always be found planted in traditional floral boarders around churches. |
On those perfect, sun-drenched afternoons in our gardens, Jacob’s wonder when he awoke from his dream seems to capture the experience best: ‘Surely the Lord is here and I did not know it. How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ |
