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http://www.healingherbs.co.uk/, http://www.edwardbach.org/, http://www.bachfloweressence.co.uk/, http://www.bachfloweres

Healing Herbs, Hereford (2025)

24/09/2025

Autumn Gentian is one of Bach’s flowers that is struggling in our rapidly changing environment.

It's a low growing plant that only opens its flowers in strong sunshine, which makes finding it hard unless you have a regular location as we do.

This year the UK has seen months without any real rainfall. For Gentian this presents a problem as it likes moist, but not wet, well drained calcareous soil. It needs consistent rain to be able to thrive and we simply haven’t had sufficient for the plants to be healthy enough for essence making.

To make an essence we have to use plants that are healthy within a clean environment. Weather plays a huge role in their health and we are always at its mercy. But climate change is accelerating the challenges we face.

In the past, having unbroken sunshine has been a big challenge. This year we have had plenty of sunshine but not enough rain. In previous years too much rain and not enough sun has been our challenge. Flowering times are no longer as consistent as they were and we have to monitor the plants closely. Making essences enables us to witness the impacts of climate change in real time.

Thankfully we maintain good supplies of our mother essences to see us through the ups and downs of weather but this does not lessen our concern for the plants and environment.

https://www.bachflowerlearning.com/the-language-of-plants/gentian/

17/09/2025

From the very beginning Healing Herbs has focused as much attention on education and community as it has making Bach Flower Essences.
We have supported many wonderful projects across the globe. One of the longest running is the Beth Bruno project in Brazil.

The Beth Bruno Project was created in 2010 with the purpose of disseminating integrative and supplementary practices to healthcare providers working in indigenous villages, quilombola people riverside people and people who live in poor areas in the outskirts of cities.

It was first launched in Santarém, in the State of Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon, an area in Brazil that is known, among others, by poverty, lack of infrastructure, few healthcare professionals and poor access to medications.

At first, the healthcare agents were trained in four natural therapies: Bach flower essences, popular homeopathy, phytotherapy and biomagnetism. The interest and enthusiasm of the participants aroused by the results made them desire to expand their knowledge, and, at their request, new natural therapies were included in the training courses: Reiki, meditation, auriculotherapy and family constellations are some of the therapeutic approaches that have become part of their services.

In 2017 a new project was established to develop the participants to work on agroecology and to stimulate healthier, more respectful and humane technologies for dealing with plants, water, earth and animals. This way, small farmers learned techniques to produce natural fertilizers, to use homeopathy to prevent diseases and to use radiesthesia to map the land so as to better use the soil and the water.

Since 2010, the Beth Bruno Project has been disseminating its therapeutic approaches to other Brazilian states: healthcare agents from the States of Roraima, Maranhão, Amazonas and Piauí were trained and today they work to promote integral healthcare approaches in their communities.

In July a 15th anniversary event was held to celebrate the extraordinary impact of the project. The event brought together health agents, partners, and local communities to celebrate achievements, strengthen bonds, and renew commitments. As part of the celebration, health agents completed their training in community-based homeopathy after two years of study and practice, reaffirming the power of shared knowledge and integrative therapies in community care.

We are proud to have supported such a wonderful project whose impact continues to grow.

https://www.twelvehealerstrust.com/2023/06/01/brazil/

10/09/2025

Unlike allopathic remedies, Bach Flower Essences are not chemical compounds that alter us at a physiological level.

They offer a direct line of communication from plant to person that allow each individual to respond in subtle ways to adjust their inner balance.

Because of this unique relationship between person and essence, it is vital to maintain the purity of the message through careful adherence to Bach’s instructions.

For example, when making essences it is absolutely critical to ensure that your shadow does not fall across the bowl containing the flowers. This would interfere with the patterning of the water and affect the quality of the final essence.

Whilst the essence making process is driven by human action, it is imperative to minimise the influence of the essence maker on the process by which the flower shares information with the water.

Julian Barnard explores this topic in depth in Bach Flower Essences and the Patterning of Water.

https://www.healingherbs.co.uk/product/bach-flower-essences-the-patterning-of-water/

03/09/2025

We might well envy Dr Bach’s freedom to wander in nature communing with plants and discovering their language of healing.

Life today makes it hard to slow down and find peace. Noise and technology make their way into every nook and cranny of solitude and peace.

Perhaps this lack of true peace is why society is becoming less patient and why tolerance for different views can be so hard to come by.

And perhaps this makes Impatiens increasingly important as an essence for our times.

Impatiens brings peace and gentleness, which is quite in contrast to its behaviour.

Impatiens grows at tremendous speed. Over the space of a couple of months the early germinating seedlings will go from a few millimetres to 6 feet or more. This is a plant focused on taking action for itself and not being deeply rooted in the ground. The explosive growth will shade out other plants as Impatiens races to flower.

As the seed heads form, tension builds up until the slightest touch causes them to explode shooting seeds out far from the parent plant.

The balance to all of this can be seen in the way the flowers hang in delicate balance on the stem. The message of the pale mauve flowers selected to make the essence is to have a little more patience and awareness of the needs of others.

Impatiens is an essence of patience and compassion, understanding that there is space for all if we just come back home to ourselves.

https://www.bachflowerlearning.com/the-language-of-plants/impatiens/

27/08/2025

Above ground, Chicory sports flowers of celestial blue. The flowers are light, airy, delicate and open for all to witness. Below ground, the plant has an incredibly deep tap root that anchors it in place.

Chicory is an essence of lineage and ancestry, the unbroken line from the past that can determine how we behave and think in the present.

Out of balance, the Chicory state is controlling. In balance, it creates unconditional love and a readiness to give that is unencumbered with expectations, as can be seen in the contrast between Chicory above and below ground.

As we progress through life, we are constantly creating the new. Each hiatus and break with normality is an opportunity to gain nourishment from our roots to seek new possibilities. Should we cling to our roots too firmly, perhaps we will miss the opportunities to build a better future for ourselves and others.

The delicate flowers suggest gentleness and the roots bring strength of resolve – Chicory shows us that harmony in life comes from balancing flower and root.

https://www.bachflowerlearning.com/the-language-of-plants/chicory/

22/08/2025

As Dr Bach developed his healing system, there was one thing on his mind, always.

He wanted his knowledge in the hands of the people who needed it.

He could have kept his process secret. He chose not to. As soon as he had the Twelve Healers, he published. He didn’t hold back, he shared everything.

He kept on publishing until his full system was available to anyone who wanted it.

As a practitioner, he was generous and open, treating those who needed it with compassion.

These aren’t historical footnotes. They are part of the ethos of the essences themselves. At Healing Herbs, they are central to how we create our essences and resource our educational programmes.

When a group of Spanish essence enthusiasts contacted us about visiting us to see how and where the essences are made, we were delighted to help.

We showed this wonderful group around the garden where many of the plants are nurtured, introduced them to the team that makes the essences, bottles them and sends them on their way to our international distributors.

We showed them our process but we also shared our approach. We follow Bach’s guidance to the letter with every essence and we hold true to the intention behind that process.

We are, as we have always been, committed to transparency and openness just as Dr Bach was. We believe this keeps his legacy alive for all our futures.

20/08/2025

Collectively we have been experiencing a time of great reflection and it is only natural that we should seek to make changes in our lives for a different future.

The question is, what should those changes be?

As you stand at the crossroads, the question of which direction you want to move in can keep you stuck in place.

This is where Wild Oat shines. It is the essence of the quest to find a new reality and the compass to find your true path in life.

Wild Oat will gently point you in the right direction and encourage you to take the first step into a new adventure.

This is an essence that may be needed by anyone. It can be used where there is no response to any of the other essences or where it is difficult to decide which essence to choose. Wild Oat can guide your choice.

Wild Oat is a map of where you are and a compass to show you which way to go.

If you need guidance to choose your flower essences, Wild Oat, taken for at least a week will help to move you forward and show you which essences will support you.

https://www.bachflowerlearning.com/the-language-of-plants/wild-oat/

13/08/2025

A mountain of things to do and organise. The pressure to always be doing turns you into an ever more tightly wound spring.

For a Vervain type, this exacerbates their natural tendencies of rigid determination and tenacity which is evident in the strong, straight stem of the plant.

This focus in the face of stress leads to doubling down, often beyond their limits. Over-exertion is common. Effort is the by-word. Nothing comes easy. But it comes from a place of wanting to do good.

This can be seen in the flowers.

Delicate and airy but focused, each flower is a spark and sparkle of thought. There is a sense of ease and openness that brings gentleness to a world of steel.

https://www.bachflowerlearning.com/the-language-of-plants/vervain/

06/08/2025

In the darkness of December, Honeysuckle begins its quest for light. Come cold winds, snow and frost it continues to slowly grow ready to respond even more enthusiastically as the weather warms.

As summer progresses, its winding tresses of leaves are adorned with sweet smelling pink and red flowers.

Honeysuckle is an invitation to lean into life and engage fully with it.

We can all feel destabilised by change in our immediate and wider environments. In these situations, it is tempting and easy to cling to the old and resist change.

Honeysuckle is our guide to find a new way, without the security or constraints of the old.

Honeysuckle shares the wisdom of leaving the past in the past and finding joy in the present

https://www.bachflowerlearning.com/the-language-of-plants/honeysuckle/

30/07/2025

Sweet Chestnut was the final essence Bach created. It is one of the Second Nineteen – essences that relate not to soul types or ingrained behaviours but responses to sudden, often traumatic situations that disrupt inner harmony.

Sweet Chestnut is the essence for the dark night of the soul.

When the anguish is so great that there seems no way through, no prospect of a lighter time and there is simply bleakness ahead.

The plants that form the basis of Bach’s system are often described in terms of light. In the case of Sweet Chestnut, the absence of light is the key because the sheer depth of feeling makes it feel that light could never enter again.

Bach would often say that we are never given more than we can handle and this essence is the reminder that there is always a luminous thread even in the darkest of labyrinths.

The Second Nineteen essences take the shocks and traumas of life and turn them into learning using the fire from the earth to spark transformation and call the soul back into the light.

https://www.bachflowerlearning.com/the-language-of-plants/sweet-chestnut/

23/07/2025

Right now, the grasslands are dotted with the gentle pink of Centaury.

Centaury is a small, delicate plant that is easy to overlook in grassland. It is unassertive amongst the bolder and flashier summer blooms.

Centaury is a biennial plant – the seed germinates one year and flowers the next. As the seed germinates, the first leaves are tiny, no more than 1mm long but the root is deep, perhaps 25mm. Everything depends upon this root.

With constant moisture (though it dislikes very wet ground) it will grow enough to claim space within the grassland.

During the first year, the young plant forms a rosette of leaves about 30 or 40mm across low to the ground. It fans itself out to claim its space. The edges of the flat leaves are slightly cupped so that rainwater will run to the centre and down to the root.

In the second year, the plant grows upward. In short grassland perhaps not very high and in longer grasses it reaches more and becomes straggly.

The germination and growth of the plant speaks of the soul type of the essence. Small, tentative and fragile steps with gentle assertion, this soul type is often taken advantage of with their good nature and drive to do more than their fair share of the work.

The essence ensures they come back to their path, their mission rather than sacrificing this to help others. It affirms the root and encourages the pursuit of positive action.

https://www.bachflowerlearning.com/the-language-of-plants/centaury/

16/07/2025

Spring and early summer have been incredibly dry in the UK. Many flowers that would normally bloom throughout July have set seed early.

Agrimony has traditionally been made from late June to early August but was flowering in early June this year and began to run to seed before the end of the month.

Agrimony primarily spreads by seed which are covered in little hooks that catch upon passing legs and fur to be deposited in random new places. Agrimony doesn’t create big communities, rather lone plants or small groups dot the grassland. This gives a significant clue to the soul type of the essence.

The Agrimony person is a complex character. Both sociable and isolated, humorous and tormented; the challenge to find peace in the world is great.

The flowers on the stem face outwards to the surrounding plants, not to the sky indicating that this soul type is looking for messages from those about them. They are highly sensitive and feel the pain of others deeply yet cannot shield themselves from what they see and hear.

The essence brings a soul clarity which can see the world and not be overcome by the pain of seeing.

https://www.bachflowerlearning.com/the-language-of-plants/agrimony/

Healing Herbs

24/09/2025

17/09/2025

10/09/2025

03/09/2025

27/08/2025

22/08/2025

20/08/2025

13/08/2025

06/08/2025

30/07/2025

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16/07/2025

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Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm