What is Happening in the Herb Garden and Kitchens This Week?

by Barbara F. Smith

Two herbs from the “New World” are today's highlights. Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus), now blooming in the BBG Herb Display Garden, are popular ornamental annual plants native to South America. Their intensely colored flowers of yellow, orange, red, or cream can brighten any corner of your garden. But beyond the sensory delight, nasturtiums provide lesser-known culinary and medicinal purposes.

Nasturtium’s name comes from the Latin words for “nose” and “twisted,” which may describe how our noses may react to the spicy, peppery scent of the flowers. The plants have disc-like leaves, typically 2-4 inches around, resembling tiny lily pads. The blossoms have been described as “funnel-shaped” with five unequal petals and a nectar spur in the back. Their growth habit is either mounding or trailing/vining, making them suitable for a variety of garden uses.  

Nasturtiums are easy to grow from seeds (and they self-sow readily), preferring full sun and well-drained, average soil. Try planting a mounding variety in a container placed in sight of a window where you enjoy the view, and you will be rewarded not only with beautiful blossoms, but also with hummingbirds and pollinators visiting.

Nasturtiums were prized by ancient Incas of Peru as both a salad vegetable and a medicinal herb used to treat respiratory infections and a poultice for cuts and burns. They were imported to Europe by Spanish explorers around 1500 (along with the potato and tomato), becoming one of the first New World plants to gain popularity in European flower gardens.

Nasturtiums are a well-known companion plant, credited with repelling white flies, cabbage pests and squash bugs. Several studies show that nasturtiums can reduce pest pressure when planted next to broccoli, cabbage, squash, and pumpkins.

Both leaves and flowers are edible, usually eaten fresh, with a flavor of watercress. Use them in salads, herb butters, topping pasta or rice, or floating in bowls of punch. Pickled nasturtium flower buds can stand in for capers in recipes. You also may choose to stuff the cups of the flowers with dips or spreads, or use the flowers alone as a stunning garnish.  

In the medicinal/science arena, all parts of the nasturtium plants are good sources of potassium, calcium and magnesium, copper, zinc, and iron. The essential oil extracted from the flowers and leaves has antimicrobial, antifungal, hypotensive, expectorant, and anticancer effects. Historic uses include treatment for respiratory infections, prevention of scurvy and external preparations for baldness and skin eruptions. 

Nasturtium leaves are “hydrophobic,” that is, water drops bounce off (even more than on lotus leaves). The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has studied the cell structure of nasturtium leaves to better understand their water repellent feature and developed the “most waterproof material ever,” inspired by the veins of nasturtium leaves and the wings of the Morpho butterfly. This new “superhydrophobic” material has potential applications for clothing, tents, turbine blades in power stations and windfarms, paint, roofing tiles, and airplanes!  

Rounding out the discussion, we must report that nasturtiums have been a beloved subject for artists and gardeners alike throughout the centuries. They were featured in the flower beds of King Louis XIV at the Palace of Versailles as a “living work of art.” Nasturtiums were planted in Thomas Jefferson’s vegetable gardens at Monticello from 1774 on. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston has an annual spring display in its courtyard. Tiffany glass, Moorcroft pottery, and William Morris textiles were inspired by the beauty of this plant, and Claude Monet not only grew them in his Giverny gardens but also painted them in his “Nasturtiums in a Blue Vase.”

Onto our second herb of interest this week: Nicotiana alata, commonly known as flowering tobacco, winged tobacco, or jasmine tobacco. It is blooming in the Display gardens (see photo). Native to the Americas, the genus Nicotiana contains more than 70 species, of which alata is one. This species is the one from which most hybrids are derived. These star-shaped flowering plants grow 3-5 feet tall with a graceful and airy growing habit that is widely used in cottage gardens, providing color and fragrance for months. With their tubular flowers and heavenly scent, Nicotiana alata blossoms attract nighttime pollinators like moths, as well as daytime pollinators like butterflies and hummingbirds. The flowers come in shades of pure white, pink, red, purple, and green.  

Note that the tobacco raised commercially for recreational smoking purposes — cigarettes and cigars, for example —share the same genus but are a species different from Nicotiana alata, one with higher nicotine content. Tobacco contains many pharmacologically active compounds, including the alkaloids nicotine and nornicotine. These compounds are narcotic, analgesic and antimicrobial; other compounds are anti-inflammatory and anesthetic.

Given that genus Nicotiana is native to the Americas, I found information about its use by indigenous peoples, which may not pertain directly to the alata species but seemed worthwhile to share.  

Native Americans widely used varieties of Nicotiana:  

“. . . For as long as we can remember, tobacco has been a sacred plant to native peoples. No other plant holds as much universal importance among the indigenous peoples of North and South America . . . It is generally believed that, when we (American Indians) use tobacco in ceremony and ritual, the smoke captures and delivers our thoughts and prayers to the natural world around us and onto the spirit realms.” (Enrique Salmón, IWÍGARA)

Native Americans’ medicinal uses for plants in the genus Nicotiana included as a snakebite remedy, to relieve headaches and pain, to stop nose bleeding, heal wounds, or ease earaches. Other uses included healing washes for skin irritations or steam baths for rheumatism. 

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE BBG KITCHENS THIS WEEK?

As the summer harvesting period picks up its pace, so, too, do the Herb Associates' indoor activities expand. The Kitchen Crew made Dill Lemon Vinaigrette, Shiso Vinegar, Shiso Salad Dressing, Fresh Tarragon Dressing, Opal Basil Finishing Salt, and Opal Basil Jelly.  A batch of Blueberry-Elderberry Shrub was prepared, containing some of the most beautiful elderberries ever seen (see photo); Lemon Verbena Simple Syrup and Opal Basil Simple Syrup were also prepared.  The labeling crew was busy keeping track of the production!

And, finally, the Herb Associates enlisted several new volunteers to knit the famed CATNIP MICE, one of the most popular products we produce! (See photo above showing Herb Associate Elizabeth Leonard discussing the pattern with our new volunteers.) Yes, we knit the bodies by hand, stuff them by hand, sew them up, and add ears and tails, all for the delight of our feline friends. Thanks to those who joined in this cause.

You can find the Herb Associates products mentioned — and more — in the BBG Gift Shop/Visitor Center.

Proceeds from sales support the Berkshire Botanical Garden.

Particular Resources this week: 

• IwÍgara: The Kinship of Plants and People; American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science, by Enrique Salmón, Timber Press (2020)
• Native American Medicinal Plants: An Ethnobotanical Dictionary, by Daniel E. Moerman, Timber Press (2009)
• Herb Society of America, “Herb of the Month: Nasturtiums,” August 2025
• The Culinary Herbal, Susan Belsinger and Arthur O. Tucker, Timber Press (2016)
• Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs, Rodale Press (1987)
• National Library of Medicine PMID:29766690; Nature Journal, Nov. 2013 “Reducing the Contact Time of a Bouncing Drop”; Science Atlas, Jan. 29, 2022 

The Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Herb Associates began in 1957 and has been making and selling products for the benefit of BBG ever since. At BBG, the Herb Associates oversee a display garden and production garden, both located near the Center House. Members/volunteers meet every Tuesday morning during the late spring through mid-autumn each year, coinciding when the gardens themselves are open to the public. Members plant, weed and tend the gardens, as well as harvest and process the variety of herbs.