Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) is a heavy-hitter in the medicinal plants game.  It is used, among other things, for the heart, for anxiety, and for women’s health.  You can read more about it here.

I planted motherwort seeds last Spring.  They germinated and produced a few plants, which flowered and went to seed.

This year, I have a bumper crop of tall motherwort plants.  Due to the super-mild winter, they began to grow very early this year (I’m not sure they ever stopped) and the plants I have now are already in flower.  According to what I’ve read, this doesn’t typically happen until late summer.  I’m starting to feel this is what it’s like to live in Florida.

Since the flowering stage is considered the best time to harvest the plant to make a tincture, I’m ready to go with my snippers and 100 proof vodka.  It was morning, after the dew had evaporated.

I brought the motherwort into the kitchen and sort of pinched off the tips and leaves into smaller segments and stuffed them into a clean quart jar, not jam-packed, just full.  Once the jar was filled, I covered the plant material with vodka and put on the lid, labelled and dated it with a Sharpie and that was it.

Simple as that.

It should be ready to use starting in about six weeks.

A quart of motherwort tincture sells for $176 USD.  I used about $6 worth of vodka and the seeds were $1.40.  Plus motherwort is a good bee plant.  It also makes a terrible-tasting but medicinal tea.

I love the tiny, orchid-like blooms.

Have you used motherwort tincture?  Do you like it?