July, the heat, the air is saturated with a thick and sweet honey aroma-it blooms meadowsweet. For its magnificent beauty, it is sometimes called the Queen of the Meadows. Untreated edges and lawns overgrown with meadowsweet completely change the appearance during its flowering.
It is impossible to pass by the flowering meadowsweet: first you will be attracted by its smell, which has spread throughout the area, and then you will certainly attract attention with fluffy creamy-white inflorescences that rise high above the carved foliage (the stems can reach a height of two meters!). The flowering meadowsweet reminds me of a white astilbe — only the inflorescences were not so strict in outline.
And yet, in addition to the catchy appearance and expressive aroma, meadowsweet is known for its healing properties. As a child, my grandmother brewed tea with meadowsweet for colds and coughs. In fact, these charming inflorescences hide a great power that traditional medicine has used since the deep Middle Ages. They say that in Europe it was even used as a remedy for the plague!
Modern scientific experiments have shown that the preparations of meadowsweet help in the treatment of certain types of cancer, and their effectiveness is close to some chemicals! And in this plant there are salicylates, similar in their action to the familiar aspirin. Only the use of meadowsweet does not give side effects similar to this drug.
In the garden, the meadowsweet will be a welcome guest, not requiring special care, but always attracting attention. Just find her a damp corner-for example, on the shore of a pond. This plant reproduces vegetatively: it is enough to dig up the rhizomes in the meadow and plant them in a prepared place. It is advisable to do this in early spring or autumn; the distance between the plants when planting is 30-40 cm (1-1.3 ft).
Well, now is the time to enjoy the aroma of honey and collect meadowsweet inflorescences as medicinal raw materials.
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