Read in text form below or click on the arrow above to listen to the audio recording.
NARRATED BY DR. MOLLY EDWARDS
ESSAY WRITTEN BY PATRICE TODISCO
INTERVEW WITH PATRICE TODISCO, LANDSCAPE HISTORIAN
Welcome to the Comfort & Soapwort banner, which celebrates the ways plants could improve a home. Two hands dipping into a basin are surrounded by soapwort, used for all purpose cleaning.
Many of the plants found in the recreated colonial garden at the Jason Russell House eased ordinary hardships. Sweet William, sweet woodruff, and rosemary were strewn on floors to improve the smell of an 18th century home, and aromatic plants were made into pocket sachets or put into soap and bathwater. Feverfew and santolina repelled mosquitos and moths. Clove pinks flavored wine, ale, syrups, sauces and jams. Chervil was believed to combat the winter blahs and elecampane to cure melancholy.
For the comfort of keeping things clean, humble Soapwort, was a winner. A long-lived perennial that spreads prolifically, Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) can still be found blooming freely along roads and fields. It can be recognized by its clusters of small flowers, each with five delicate petals. While it is sometimes classified as a noxious weed, this phlox-like flower has been cultivated in gardens for centuries.
When crushed, Soapwort’s leaves and stems create a lather; its boiled roots produce a detergent which can dissolve grease. In its mildest form, it was historically used to clean delicate fabrics and wool tapestries. It contains fungicides that aid in the preservation of cloth. Recorded in England as early as 1540, soapwort’s nickname “Bouncing Bet” references the English washerwomen and barmaids who used the plant to clean beer bottles.
With its multiple uses it is little surprise that this humble plant was common in the colonies, where it was used to wash everything including: clothes, dishes, hair, and even the wool of sheep before shearing. In testimony to its versatility, its leaves could even be used to enhance beer’s foamy head and in the treatment of poison ivy, rheumatic disorders, and intestinal infections.
Today, soapwort is listed in the Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States. A garden escapee, it spreads through an extensive rhizome system as well as by seed. As a result, while it is not commonly planted today, it still can be found throughout New England, a reminder of our colonial past.
To hear more about soapwort’s journey through time and space, let’s hear from Patrice Todisco, the executive director of the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area who is also a landscape historian and gardener.