No matter if the flowers a mother receives on Mother’s Day are bouquets of dandelions, violets, lilacs or roses, each will be lovingly received.

I hope the abundance of pollen does not keep you from spending time outside during the month of May. No other month — except for September — gives us more wildflowers. May has more varieties of wildflowers than September; however, September’s flowers are more abundant.

While May’s flowers are small and fragile due to their short growing season, September’s flowers have had the whole summer to grow tall, with heavy stems, will last well into October or until we have had a hard frost.

Our ancestors used wildflowers in many of their medicinal treatments, and today, there has been a resurgence in this practice

Recently, Mary Alice accidently dropped a large pot of boiling water that splashed on her legs and feet. I called our doctor but he was unavailable and the assistant was unable to see her until later that afternoon. Mary Alice was in great pain and her legs and feet were a scarlet red. She got in the shower with cold water running on her legs and feet.

We talked about going to the emergency room, however, it was decided that I go to our local pharmacy and find out what was good for that type of burn. The pharmacist gave me an ointment to rub very gently on infected area. Later, a friend told me that I should have rubbed the leaf of an aloe plant on her legs and feet.

Aloe is known as the burn plant and is used worldwide as a treatment for burns. The aloe plant is native to Africa, and it is said that the Sulkari Indians rubbed the gel of aloe on their bodies to remove any human scent so that they could get closer to their quarry while hunting.

Modern medicine has acknowledged that the aloe gel does heal burns from flame, sun and radiation. The gel soothes itching, burning, and depending upon the severity of the burn, the tissue regenerates, with no scars, and normal pigmentation of the skin returns. Although aloe gel has been added to other ingredients, which are sold over the counter, fresh aloe gel from a plant produces the best results.

In a region of Saudi Arabia, aloe is called saber, which means patient. They are considered patient plants because they are always green and require very little water.

To use the gel of an aloe plant, simply cut off the outermost leaves because these are the oldest and hold more gel. The plant produces new leaves from the center of the plant. If you would like to grow a plant, find a friend who will give you a leaf. Then, place the leaf in water, and roots will sprout.

Next, place the plant in a pot with soil.

Garlic is another plant that modern medicine has in its black bag. At one time, garlic was thought to have had magical powers against evil and was used in charms and spells. However, it seems that garlic has lost this mythical acclaim for warding off vampires and evil spirits, and today, garlic is known more for its ability to kill germs.

The word garlic comes from the Old English word garlic, which means spear leek. Garlic is native to Central Asia and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean Region.

In earlier times, the Egyptians swore on a clove of garlic when taking a solemn oath. They worshipped garlic and placed clay models of garlic bulbs in the tomb of Tutankhamen. With garlic being so highly prized, it was used as currency.

Garlic is an onion, with a compound bulb comprised of 4-15 cloves or bublets that are enclosed in a papery sheath. The sheath is tan colored in early varieties and a pinkish color in later ones.

Although the American Indians used the wild garlic, it did not become popular in the United States until the first quarter of the 20th century. At first it was only found in ethnic dishes in working-class neighborhoods, however in the 1940s Americans started to embrace garlic and began to use it as a major ingredient in recipes.

Today Americans consume more than 250 million pounds of garlic annually. Garlic now ranks as the most popular herbal cure-all because studies have shown that garlic can help maintain elasticity of aging blood vessels. Blood vessels (like old rubber bands) lose their ability to stretch with time, and this is the reason many elderly people have high blood pressure.

Garlic has been shown to lower high blood pressure, retard the growth of certain bacteria, reduce the risk of breast, stomach and colon cancers. That said, eating garlic cloves or garlic supplements is not advised by any health organization because not enough studies have been conducted.

There is little control on garlic supplements. When purchasing garlic pills, one can’t be exactly sure what they are buying. Just as other dietary supplements, these products are not viewed as drugs by the government regulators, therefore they are not scrutinized for content, purity or anything else if the manufacturers do not make any health claims on the package.

The contents of pills can and often do vary. One study found that the number of garlic ingredients released by different brands varied by as much as 18-fold. Of course, if you regularly take medicine such as aspirin or other drugs that thin the blood, see your doctor before taking garlic supplements because garlic has anticoagulant properties.

One drawback to eating garlic is garlic breath. Take garlic in any form and your breath will smell rank. Young, fresh garlic leaves leave less of an aftertaste than older cloves, however, garlic breath is unavoidable.

Some folk cures were either to chew on a sprig of parsley or eat a strawberry immediately after eating garlic; also taking a long bath in very warm water would help the garlic oils in the body to evaporate.

It’s hard to believe that garlic would be used as a decoration, however Italian restaurants always have colorful ropes of garlic and red peppers hanging in their dining areas.

In the past, Mary Alice has made several of these ropes, with herbs added to the peppers and garlic. Luckily, the garland was hung from a beam, so I never knew whether there was an odor. I do know that we haven’t had any trouble with vampires, so it must have worked.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.