Restore

A small shrub from the Americas with soft yellow flowers. Damiana has a long history of use for tension, low mood, and the kind of holding-on that keeps the body from rest.

Slightly sweet, slightly bitter — a quiet relaxant.

A native vining plant with one of the strangest flowers in the garden. Passionflower leaf is used for the kind of mind that won't stop turning — the worry that keeps you up.

It softens the edge so sleep can find you.

Tall, slender, with small purple flower spikes. Blue vervain is bitter — really bitter — and traditionally given to people who carry tension in the neck and shoulders, who can't put the day down.

A small amount is enough.

Chamomile is one of the most quietly trusted herbs in Western practice. The flowers smell faintly of apples and honey.

Used for a long time to settle the stomach, calm a wound-up nervous system, and ease the way into sleep.

Picked in the morning before the heat takes the oils. Rose softens the edges of stronger herbs and is traditionally used to ease grief, irritation, and the kind of tension that lives behind the chest.

It belongs in every blend it touches.

Sarsaparilla is a vining plant whose root has been used across many traditions — Caribbean, South American, Appalachian — as a blood cleanser and a binder. Quietly sweet, slightly resinous.

It carries the other herbs and gives the blend its bottom note.