The long stems of the periwinkle, vinca major, were used to make garlands and their Latin name comes from vincio, ‘to bind’. Periwinkles have been used medicinally for centuries, principally for its astringent qualities and to help stop bleeding. It is also used by herbalists to help diabetes. In folk medicine, an ointment of lard and the bruised leaves was used to reduce inflammation. Its older herbal history, though, is somewhat more colourful.
One old name for the plant is ‘cut finger’, referring no doubt to its ability to stop bleeding.
In Germany it was known as the Flower of Immortality, while in Italy it was flower of death and used to garland the biers of children.
In Macer’s 16thC herbal it is referred to it by one of its common names as Joy of the Ground. Another name is violette des sorciers… the sorcerer’s violet and Macer writes that it is useful for banishing ‘wykked spirytis.’ That it was also used in love potions and philtres leaves the reader wondering about that connection… and the binding implicit in its name.
In the 16thC Boke of Secretes of Albartus Magnus is a recipe for one such potion, requiring that the periwinkle be beaten to a powder with earthworms and houseleeks before being added to the food of a couple, ‘as it induceth love between man and wyfe.’
I think I might give that one a miss…
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
Pretty flowers. Icky recipes!
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Many of them were…but they had a symbolic logic 😉
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Yes. Beautiful flowers. Don’t want to eat them. 🙂
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I don’t mind the flowers so much as the powdered earthworm… 🙂
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Reblogged this on stevetanham.
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Reblogged this on Anita Dawes & Jaye Marie.
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Yeah.. don’t think I’ll be trying it any time soon, either. I’ll stick to chocolate! 😁🐣🐰🍫💖
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Works for me 😉
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Great information about the beautiful periwinkle but like you I`ll give the last one a miss. lol
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😀
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I was gifted and still have perennial, no help/support from me, plantings of this, from 2013 – Figure Vinca knows how to take care of itself and us, all at the same time – AWESOME! 🙂
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It does, I usually inherit some in whatever garden I’ve had too 🙂
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Absolute beauty!
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Thanks, Robert.
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