This easy to grow, spreading perennial has local names like ‘knit bone’ because of its healing properties and ability to stimulate cell growth. The bell shaped purple flowers are a favourite with bees. 9x9cm pot (8cm depth)
Description
- A favourite for bees
- Useful healing herb
- Easy to grow and maintain
- Leaves used to make plant feed
With a documented use for many centuries, the name comfrey comes from the Latin confervo meaning to knit or heal together. It is one of the tallest plants of the borage family and is commonly found growing wild near waterways and damp ground.
Plant Care
- Height: 100-150cm
- Type: Hardy
- Aspect: Sun/shade
- Soil: Any/alkaline
- Flower colour: Purple
- Flowering period: June - August
The wonderfully useful comfrey can also become a bit of a thug in rich and heavy soils, spreading and invading its neighbours. If you haven’t got this type of space, it is easily grown in a big container; even a dustbin sized one, but needs to be kept well-watered during drier spells. Even with regular feeding it will need splitting every couple of years to keep it invigorated. Comfrey dies down completely over winter and emerges the following spring; it is particularly vulnerable to slugs and snails at this point, they seem to love it.
Usage
Comfrey leaves are a friend to both herbalist and gardener, falling out of favour as an internal remedy, it is a valuable plant for external use.
They are packed with vitamins and minerals that aid healing and are added to a variety of external first aid preparations. The leaves can be freshly harvested and applied to the body as a poultice or individually dried and made into infused oils and balms.
The herb acts on the bodies’ connective tissue speeding up healing of broken bones, sprains and strains and bruising.
In the garden the highly nutritious leaves can be used as mulch, added to a compost pile or made into a liquid fertiliser.
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