Show Notes:

Rochana and Kathleen interview David Dalton, a pioneering flower essence producer, practitioner, educator, founder of Delta Gardens, and author of Stars of the Meadow – Exploring Medicinal Herbs as Flower Essences. 

David has been making flower essences in his research gardens and in natural habitats around the world for over thirty years. In this episode, we hear about his flower essence research, practice, and some of his interesting adventures along the way. 

Audio:

Video:

Flower Essences discussed during the show:

• Marigold
• Banana
• Saguaro Cactus
• Luffa
• Redwood
• Skin Spray
• Borage
• Angelica
• Orchids
• Milk Thistle
• Uganda Animal Spirit Set

Resources

• Delta Gardens Flower Essences
• Free Devic Healing Temple – sign up for the mailing list
• New Class! Secrets of Plant Communication

Show Transcript

Rochana Felde: [00:00:39] Welcome, friends. Today on The Flower Essence podcast, we have a very special guest, our friend and teacher, David Dalton. David is a pioneering flower essence producer, practitioner, author, and educator. He’s been making flower essences in New England in his research gardens and in natural habitats throughout the world for over 30 years. In the mid-1980s, he founded Delta Gardens, a center for flower essence research and education, where he and his staff see clients and train practitioners.

David combines his background in behavioral sciences with his deep understanding of the natural world to delve into the mystery and potential of flower essences as a 21st-century complement to medical health care. Since the beginning of his unique flower essence adventure, David has combined clinical thinking, intuition, and a strong relationship with nature to create an extensive collection of products that support emotional, mental, and physical health. He’s also the author of Stars of the Meadow, a book about exploring medicinal herbs as a flower essence. And he’s a valued teacher to both Kathleen and I, who have completed his practitioner training.

Welcome to the podcast, David.

David Dalton: [00:02:00] Thank you. Happy to be here.

Rochana Felde: [00:02:01] Really glad to have you here.

David Dalton: [00:02:02] Thank you.

Rochana Felde: [00:02:03] I just wanted to start out and ask how you got started with flower essences.

David Dalton: [00:02:09] Well, this was 1985, and this impulse hit me to garden, grow things. I’m not sure where it came from and it’s still a mystery to me, but I ended up digging up a quarter acre with a shovel that was kitty-cornered to my house in Newburyport in a neighborhood and started growing things. While this was happening, and this was an adventure all to itself, I was preferring plants that were all weedy or the ones that were very strong because they had a stronger energy.

There was a point later in the ’80s when I started having these altered experiences with the plants. Sometimes they would wake me up in the middle of the night and ask me to go out. And I remember one particular time a BlackBerry plant just appeared over my bed, and this was weird to me because I hadn’t had experiences like this before, and invited me to go out and make an essence under the moon, which I did. Many of the plants would give some kind of either feeling emotion or sometimes very direct communication like they would tell me what they needed, more water, less water, mulch, no mulch, move. And so I began this process of gardening with nature and, well, who was the boss in that particular situation. So that’s a little bit about it. I remember I made my first essence around 1986 or ’87.

Important to mention, I learned about flower essences way before the Bach Essences, but there was a whole new impulse beginning then. Perelandra Flower Essence Society were more public then and you could buy books.

And so I remember making my first essence around 1986 or ’87. It was a Marigold essence and holding the bowl and just asking please release the essence of these flowers into the water. And I had a total out-of-body experience where I was watching my whole– I was watching myself from above, about 30 feet, and I remember I had a next-door gardener, over-the-fence gardener who called me over. I’m watching from above as my body goes over and begins talking to her. And then popped back into my body. That’s a little bit about the beginning. I was very, very excited and enthusiastic about making essences and exploring, well, what exactly is this for? Some of them I made for things that I had read, what they were for, and other things I explored on my own.

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:05:21] And your impulse to start working with essences, I’m kind of guessing that it was like a lot of us where we have struggles and challenges inside and we’re kind of looking for the right plant to meet that need. Were you working with for essences for yourself, for your family, or did people start coming to you and you could start seeing the plants through the lens of the need that people are connecting with you? Does that make sense?

Kathleen Aspenns: [00:47:52] All right. Well, until next time, flower lovers. We will look forward to seeing you with our next episode, which will come up soon, I’m sure, and we’ll be letting you know news and exciting things that are happening with us. See you soon.

Hi, flower lovers. For the last two years, Rochana and I have been sharing practical insights and our professional experience working with flower essences on The Flower Essence podcast. There is so much more to come. Even after nearly 40 episodes, we find that we have many more topics and guests we’d love to introduce. In service of this project to connect people with plant wisdom and healing, we invite you to join us in building our Patreon community.

There are some costs that come with creating a podcast, and we thought it would be really great for people that want to help us to be able to do it in this way. Patreón is such a great platform that helps creative people finance their projects and allows us to give you some perks for doing it. We’re offering early access to episodes, full transcripts, a flower essence QuickStart guide, and more good stuff in the future. We’re excited to build this flower essence community with you as a critical part of it. And we thank you so much for helping to support us and our mission to spread the wisdom of nature around the world.
Kathleen Aspenns: [00:49:20] This podcast is meant for educational and entertainment purposes only. We are not physicians and do not diagnose, prescribe, or treat medical conditions. Please consult with your own physician or health care practitioner regarding the suggestions and recommendations made by the hosts and guests of The Flower Essence podcast.