Hats Off to Stinging Nettle

True confessions: I’ve never loved the stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) plant in the Delta Gardens garden. No doubt, stinging nettle is an amazing medicinal, and I’ve used it herbally with great success to settle my seasonal allergies. But I find the actual plant to be a little unapproachable. Let’s just say I know from personal experience why it’s named stinging nettle.

The leaves and stems are covered with tiny hairs that can get stuck in your skin if you brush up against them. The hairs inject a combo of formic acid (which AI tells me is also secreted by ants), histamine, serotonin (which irritates) and moroidin (another stinging toxin).

I discovered - while weeding a few stinging nettle seedlings last year - that I’m very reactive to those hairs. After pulling up a couple of sprouts with gloves on, I walked away with large hives on my hands that looked and felt like a bunch of angry bee stings. It took about five hours for my skin to calm down.

I now give the plant a pretty wide berth which is unusual for me. I love to get close to plants - feel their leaves, take macro glam shots of their flowers, etc. But I’m cautious with stinging nettle, and I don’t love feeling cautious in the garden. So not only does it irritate physically…I feel a little irritated that I have to avoid it. I find it interesting that the general vibe around the stinging nettle plant seems to be one of all-around irritation, especially given its signature as a flower essence.

The stinging nettle essence helps to release intense emotions that are anchored in past pain. It’s helpful for people who hold suppressed anger or grief from past hurts or who feel generally misunderstood, shunned or judged. The essence is a resource for anyone whose emotional reactions seem out-of-proportion to present events.

Our stinging nettle plant is having a banner year. It’s gotten very tall and is currently loaded with flowers. In fact, David just remade the essence for Delta Gardens this week - a project that he got started so I (thankfully) didn’t have to handle the flowers. I did go to the garden to transfer the essence water into a bottle with brandy. Finishing the process allowed me some time with the plant, with the essence, with myself - and interestingly, I felt a budding connection with both the plant and the essence which I hadn’t experienced before. I even started to think that I should maybe take the essence, myself.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been navigating a layered family issue that has roots back to my childhood. I’ve felt pretty sad and angry, and the magnitude of these feelings has seemed a little out of proportion to what’s actually happening, day to day.

I took my first dose of stinging nettle three days ago, and I have to say, I noticed a shift pretty quickly. The sadness and anger dialed down in intensity. What felt like a five-alarm emotional fire died back quite a bit, enough for me to take a look at the whole situation with more of a gentle eye. It was a relief not to feel so reactive which (come to think of it) was a bit like an emotional version of my overblown skin response to the nettle’s hairs.

The stinging nettle essence didn't neutralize my anger and grief altogether. I don’t think that that would be desirable anyway. Our emotional responses are such an important compass in life, showing us what areas in us need healing and special care - and what things are fundamentally good for us and what things aren’t.

What the stinging nettle essence DID offer me was relief from emotional inflammation so that I was/am better able to care for myself and take positive action rather than throw all of my available energy into being mad and sad.

So all this to say, I’m feeling grateful for stinging nettle this week. I’m also genuinely surprised that it helped me get through this triggering time. I never would have guessed (although maybe I should have - plants are full of surprises!) that my one semi-enemy in the garden would become such an ally.

P.S. For more info on the essence, check out the Delta Gardens website.