Little flower

Size Doesn't Matter

I can remember when I was a child my mother used to take me to visit her grandmother. My great-grand mother was an old lady living in a dark ground floor flat. Her flat was a succession of rooms, one leading into another from the kitchen which you entered straight from the front door. While the 2 women talked I often got bored and was allowed to go to my great-grand mothers lounge which was the last of the flight of dark rooms. There was nothing particular to see or to do for a 4 year old girl apart from the window sill of African violets my great grand mother used to grow. Nothing else would have thrived in this dark place but her African violets were fabulous with their dark purple flower petals and their dark green, hairy leaves. I was fascinated by them and could look at them for ages. 

What I found even more fascinating  when I came in contact with them, was the cyclamen, another form of violet in name only. It actually belongs to the primrose family. Its German name is "Alpenveilchen", meaning violet of the Alps. So that is my connection with the African violet. Cyclamen were not a pot plant when I was young like the African violet. So coming across it was quite rare, something you would really only come across in the Alps, where I never was in those days. Now you can have it as a pot plant for indoors, but they grow in the open air in the UK as well. It is just wonderful to see the bright little fellows in the undergrowth.

I still like those pretty little flowers which come in different colours and look so delicate. Some even smell very nice, mostly the white variety. I find it difficult to imagine them in the rough conditions of the Alps. It is funny but they are quite hardy plants liking poor soil and surviving low temperatures if they are covered by snow. The corm of the cyclamen is poisonous for cats and fish but seems to be the favorite food of pigs. 

Well, cyclamen are not only a beautiful little flower with a big corm, there is actually a very good Homoeopathic remedy made out of it. It really is amazing what this little flower can do as a Homoeopathic preparation. It helps with Premenstrual Syndrome and other menstrual problems when indicated. It showed remarkable benefits when the period was accompanied with terrible pain. It also might help with prostatic troubles where indicated but that is not its only range of action. So please no self prescribing, I'm here to help and I will find the right remedy for YOU. Give me a ring on 07813 195468. Looking forward to hear from you.

Photograph by Roger Giraud-Saunders