China Flower

China Flower

In 2004 a writer, a poet and a photographer travelled over 5000 miles from Britain to China to find a tiny blue flower called Cerato, known locally as 'Little Star Grass'. Why did these three men travel so far to find this plant?

The flower is one of the healing plants used in a set of remedies formulated in the 1930s by Edward Bach, a Harley Street doctor. He believed that physical illness resulted from imbalance in an individual's life and conflict within their personality. He observed that people with emotional and physical problems tended to recover more quickly if they acknowledged the relationship between their emotions and physical health.

Dr Bach discovered twelve healing plants with specific qualities to treat different personality types. For example, Scleranthus can be used to treat people who find it hard to make decisions, so that they have more determination and certainty. Agrimony can be used to treat those who hide worry behind a carefree mask, and can help them become more peaceful and content.

The remedies are created by steeping flowers in a bowl of water in direct sunlight or boiling them, strained and mixed with the same volume of organic brandy, to make up the 'mother tincture'. This is the concentrated essence of the flower, which is further diluted 1:400 parts with 40% organic French brandy to make the traditional Bach flower stock concentrate. This is either dropped into a glass of water and consumed, or used to make a combination with other remedies in a dispensing bottle.

The Cerato remedy is suited to those who do not trust themselves and lack confidence in their intuition. It can help people to follow their own inclinations instead of constantly following the advice of others. The flower was originally discovered over a hundred years ago in south west China by Ernest Wilson, a British explorer. Gertrude Jekyll then used them in a garden she designed with Sir Edwin Lutyens, and Edward Bach later visited the garden and recognised the plant as one of the 'Twelve Healers' that he was searching for.

The original expedition reached Chengdu in the early summer of 1908. By the end of the autumn Wilson and his caravan of twenty-eight porters had explored large tracts of the western mountains that eventually reach up to the Tibetan plateau. While following the Min River up the narrow valley towards its source, he discovered a species of Cerato and sent the seeds back to his sponsors at Harvard University. Charles Sargent, Director of Harvard's Arnold Arboretum, forwarded these seeds to Miss Ellen Willmott (a supporter of Wilson's expedition) who raised two plants in her garden in Warley Place in Essex, England.

In 2004 a second expedition travelled to the Min Valley to trace the path of Ernest Wilson and find Cerato flowers in their natural habitat. The team was led by Julian Barnard, botanist, founder of Healing Herbs and author of many books on the Bach flower remedies, together with Graham Challifour, designer and photographer, Glenn Stourhag, editor of the Bach Flower Research Programme, and Annie Wang, guide, interpreter and translator.

The Cerato flowers are only one centimetre in size and grow as wild flowers in cliffs and rocky ground, in clusters which can grow up to a metre in height. The expedition first found them on a bank on the side of the road, close to where Wilson found the plant further south in the then untouched valley.

They also found the flowers growing along the side of the Min River and on limestone cliffs. The plant is used by locals, who create an infusion from boiled Cerato roots to help women in labour. They also steep Cerato roots in alcohol to rub onto the skin to improve blood circulation, remove blood clots and ease pain and inflammation.

The expedition also found Agrimony and Wild Rose, two other healing plants, and local villagers presented the visiting expedition with bundles of Cerato when they noticed their interest in this small flower. The group returned to the UK with video footage of the flower in its original habitat, and a greater knowledge of the people and surroundings in this region of China.

The flower is just one of the thirty-eight remedies developed by Dr Bach for various states of mind. Dr Bach arranged these into seven original groupings:

- Fear

- Uncertainty

- Insufficient interest in present circumstances

- Loneliness

- Over-sensitivity to influences and ideas

- Despondency or despair

- Over-care for welfare others

Each of Dr Bach's flowers hold a mirror to our psychological and emotional states, and present a way to work with problems and difficulties. Individuals and their emotional condition are central to the experience and process of healing. Travelling to see Cerato in its natural habitat helped the members of the group to reach a deeper understanding of the healing properties of the flower.

Julian Barnard commented that when presented with the remedies,

'Most people don't believe in them at the first, but it does work on many people. Dr Bach found 38 remedy flowers in all. We have been making use of them. But the most important thing is not the remedies, it's the thought.'

Animals respond particularly well to the remedies, perhaps because they have no preconceptions about their efficacy. While in China, the group noticed similarities between the principles behind the healing remedies and Chinese Taoism, which Annie, the translator, described as 'washing away the dust from your mind and returning to your true soul and to your real self.'

To find out more about the flower remedies visit http://www.healingherbs.co.uk.

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