Growing Plants from Harry Potter in Your Flower Garden

Harry Potter really has impacted modern popular culture. It has turned kids on to reading and it has created a huge amount of profits. However, as the book and movie series comes to a conclusion you can still enjoy the Harry Potter saga with your kids by growing a flower garden that contains plants from the books and from the movies. What you should keep in mind is that many of these plants are poisonous, so you will need to make sure you keep pets from eating the leaves and flowers of these ornamental plants.

The Mandrake

The mandrake is one of the first plants that was talked about in depth in Harry Potter. This is a real plant called Mandragora officinarum, and it has a long history and a rich folk lore attached to it. The legends about the screams of the mandrake actually originated back in the 17^th century when it was believed that the screams were so deafening to people and dogs that it was harvested using very unique techniques. This myth most likely developed after seeing the human shaped roots of the mandrake plant.

While the mandrake is not a normal species planted in a garden, they are actually very pretty. They have dark green serrated leaves and delicate purple flowers that have white centers. You will need to find a specialty flower grower or vendor to find this plant.

Belladonna

Belladona is another plant from Harry Potter that you can add to your garden or landscape, however, again, it is a very toxic plant. It is actually a shrub that grows up to about five feet tall and it has 7+ inch long leaves. It is a perennial herbaceous shrub that has many medicinal applications. For example, it was used by the Romans as an anesthetic during field surgeries. If you plant belladonna in your garden make sure your kids know that the berries are ornamental and not edible, as they are extremely toxic.

Wolfsbane

Perhaps the most well known plant/herb mentioned in the Harry Potter books is wolfsbane. For centuries wolfsbane has been used as a treatment for werewolves. It was thought that giving wolfsbane to a werewolf that they would become less dangerous after they transformed by allowing them to maintain a connection with their human intelligence and morality.

Wolfsbane comes in multiple varieties. Its most common variety produces a very pretty and distinctive blue-violet flower. This flower's petals are arranged in a pattern that resembles a monk's hood, and this is why it is sometimes referred to a blue monkshood. This plant thrives in the northern hemisphere and can be found growing wild in many northern latitude forests. However, if you don't have a native wolfsbane flower to harvest seeds from, you can purchase these plants from exotic flower vendors.