I’ve been trying something new… 

Working with leaf buds. 

In a welcome bout of sunshine this week I have been picking the emerging buds of hawthorn leaves and submersing them in alcohol. The photo shows just 10g that I had picked so far; I am aiming for 50g – it is time consuming… 

I will also collect birch buds soon, but they are not quite ready yet. In a few days I will leave them in a mix of alcohol, water and glycerine. 

You may well ask why, when I already make tinctures of leaves and flowers, why the bud, and won’t it ruin the growth of the bush? 

When you pick buds you don’t need the same quantity as leaves, and you don’t pick them all from one place. I look at it as if I am still picking the leaves, but earlier… 

Doing this is officially called Gemmotherapy. This method works with plants at the moment they’re waking up; buds and young shoots full of stored momentum, minerals, enzymes, and growth factors that haven’t yet been spent on leaves or flowers. When you work with a bud extract, you’re working with the plant’s intention, not its finished form. That’s why these remedies feel different from teas and tinctures: they’re not just extracts, they’re developmental snapshots. 

There are two buds I hope to work with this year, because I have them in my garden:  hawthorn and birch.  

Birch is the classic ‘let’s get things moving again’ remedy. In early spring, when the body is still a bit winter-logged with sluggish digestion, heavy limbs, skin not quite sure what it’s doing, birch bud macerate fits the season perfectly. 

Birch buds support: 

• Kidney and fluid movement: helping the body shift out of winter stagnation. 

• Metabolic clearing: especially when you feel puffy, slow, or overloaded. 

• Rheumatic discomfort: that flares when the weather can’t decide what it’s doing. 

• Skin clarity: particularly when the issue is internal congestion rather than surface irritation. 

Birch is the remedy you reach for when you want to feel lighter, not in a detoxfad way, but in a ‘my body is waking up again’ way. 

Hawthorn buds belong to the heart; physically, emotionally, rhythmically. They’re not dramatic; they’re steadying. As the year picks up pace and everything starts to accelerate, hawthorn bud macerate helps the system stay anchored. 

Hawthorn buds support: 

• Healthy cardiovascular tone: circulation, rhythm, and general steadiness. 

• The heart muscle: thanks to their antioxidant profile. 

• The emotional landscape: especially when stress shows up as tightness in the chest or restless sleep. 

• The ‘wired but tired’ state: where the mind won’t switch off even though the body is done. 

Hawthorn is the remedy for the season when life speeds up and you want your heart, literal and metaphorical, to stay in step. 

 Autumn and Winter: Returning to Birch and Hawthorn as the Year Contracts 

As the days shorten, birch and hawthorn come back into play, but for different reasons than in spring and summer. 

• Birch helps counter the creeping heaviness of colder months, especially when joints stiffen or the body feels bogged down. 

• Hawthorn supports the heart through the emotional dips that often arrive with darker days, irritability, low resilience, disrupted sleep. 

Neither remedy forces anything. They work with the body’s seasonal tendencies rather than against them. 

Why Bud Extracts Aren’t Just Fancy Teas 

“Gemmotherapy is the newest and youngest branch of phytotherapy, scientifically developed in the last 50 years and clinically applied on a large scale in the last 30 years, especially in France, Belgium, Italy, Romania…” 

https://www.centrulnatura.ro/en/gemmotherapy

“The embryological tissues of the buds and shoots are the most nutrient dense part of the plant. These tissues contain more vitamins, oligo-elements, minerals, nucleic acids, and growth material than any other part of the plant. The embryological tissue also contains meristem cells. Meristems are the growth cells of the plant, that possess tremendous regenerative properties, much like human stem cells, and have infinite and indefinite self-replicating properties. These cells possess all the power of the future plant and all the genetic information as well as the energetic imprint. Due to this, Gemmotherapy extracts are able to clean and fortify human cells simultaneously.” 

Lauren Hubele Gemmotherapy for Everyone 

I am just dipping my toe in these waters, as my whole herbal life has been about leaves, barks and flowers, I never have picked buds before. 

Gemmotherapy is gaining traction in the UK and at The School of Herbal Medicine [based in Somerset, UK] we are looking into bringing it in as a course, or CPD for qualified herbalists. Should be interesting…