Baggins Herbal Gardens

Welcome to Karori outside of Wellington, New Zealand. We have created an herbal and flower garden for your enjoyment. The idea came from the old Bagninne Wells Garden and other tea pleasure gardens of old London.

The was created for role playing purposes on Panhistoria. The year is 1893.

A Peony

Grounds

We have planted blue (narrow-leafed) lupin, white lupin, and yellow lupin wherever it will grow to fix the nitrogen in the soil. They are also popular with bees. Mr. David Douglas brought the first lupins from the Americas to Britain in the 1820s. The blue lupin is closest to the wild variety, which are blue to purple. But I also like the white and yellow ones. Who knows what other colors are possible?*

We also have herbal gardens. See if you can spot amaranth (pile wort), American Pennyroyal, with light, blue flowers; celandine (good for poultices and warts), with bright, yellow flowers; lavender; marigolds with yellow and orange-yellow flowers; marjoram; Mexican Damiana; myrtle; rosemary; sage; Summer Savory with little, pink flowers; Sweet Cicely; wintergreen (periwinkle) with white flowers, yellow jessamine and others.

The gardens surround a large pond. In an island in the pond we have a rotunda and an arbor. At one end of the pond we have Peony Pavilion, a large, round, Chinese pavilion with round, red columns and a Chinese-style roof. Peonies of all colors are planted around the pavilion.

Food

Breads

We offer a fine variety of homemade breads made with a variety of fresh herbs. Choose from:

• Dill
• Fennel
• Marjoram
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Thyme
• Rye bread with caraway seeds
• Rye bread with fennel seeds
• Pumpernickel (rye) flavored with caraway seeds

The bread comes with a spread and some cheese. Choose from:

• Dill butter
• Damson plum and rose petal jam
• Elderflower jelly
• Geranium jelly
• Gooseberry and lemon balm jelly
• Mint and apple jelly
• Rose jelly
• Cheese flavored with white and yellow melilot

Sweets

• Candied flowers, including borage, marigolds, rosemary flowers, and roses.
• Cakes, including yellow marigold cake
• Cookies, including lavender cookies with rosewater icing, lavender tea cookies, rosemary shortbread
• Sweets, including apple tansy (a pudding with apples, cream, and tansy), oranges filled with rose geranium jelly, and strawberries with cream and mint

Drinks

• Rose geranium fruit punch
• Rosemary wine

Teas

• Sweet Woodruff tea (good for digestion)
• Basil tea
• Betony tea, which tastes like Oriental black tea
• Chamomile
• Costmary, with a minty flavor
• Damiana (an aromatic golden brew with "an agreeable bitterish taste")
• Fennel seed tea (good for children and older people)
• Fenugreek tea
• Licorice
• Nettle tea flavored with lemon
• Pennyroyal tea mixed with a little lavender
• Peppermint tea
• Rosemary tea
• Sage tea (good for digestion)
• Spearmint tea (milder than peppermint)
• Summer savory tea
• Sweet woodruff tea (good for digestion)
• Thyme tea
• Wild marjoram tea
• Wintergreen tea, a rose-colored tea

Herbal and floral products for purchase

• Botanical vinegar face wash and hair rinse, including Damask rose, lavender, and/or rosemary
• Flower seeds, including pink and purple Butter bur, damask roses, white lilies, small, pale blue lobelia flowers, large, red peonies, rose geraniums, and violets
• Herbal remedies, including powdered myrtle snuff for congested noses, amaranth (pile wort) for throat irritations and diarrhea
• Herbal teas
• Insect repellant for linen, including lavender and dried woodruff which keep insects away from linen
• Potpourris, including preparations with white and yellow melilot
• Salves, including marigold

*The fabulous colored lupins of New Zealand, especially in South Island, date to the 1940s and 1950s after the Russell Lupin was developed. The information comes from Lupinus Polyphyllus (Wikipedia).

Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APaeonia_peregrina_144-8742.jpg

Created September 24, 2016

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