Hi,

Okay, I don't even have a garden yet, but I'm getting one in May (I've been posting on the New Gardeners forum about this). I know most of ya'll aren't squeamish, so don't be grossed out by the preface to my question:

My son, who is three, was born at home and his placenta has been in the freezer awaiting "planting" all this time. I'm now expecting another baby at the beginning of March (she/he will be 2 months when we move into our house), and so I will want to plant her/his placenta also. I want to plant each placenta (which, by the way, is supposed to be superior fertilizer, provided you plant it deeply enough that the local cats don't dig it up--yuck!) with a special tree for each child.

I'm considering something I saw in the Raintree nursery catalog for my son--a weeping mulberry. I love it because it's edible and useful (and he loves mulberries, which grow wild around here), and when trained properly it can form a sort of "clubhouse" space under the weeping branches for children to play in. However, I'd rather not have to ship the darn thing all the way across the nation, so I was wondering if anyone knows if any small mulberry variety can be trained to "weep," or if weeping varieties are widely available from nurseries on the East coast.

I haven't decided what to plant for the next child, but I'm considering something that either flowers or fruits (or leaves, or barks) in purple (this seems to be her/his spiritual color), and I'd like it to be something that is fun (providing climbing, hiding, or other play opportunities). I'm open to any suggestions. I'm in zone 7, by the way.

Thanks!

Heather

P.S. If planting a placenta is too weird even for this group, please don't kick me off the board! I love this board, and I'll stop talking about discarded body organs if it's simply too much.

Most of the weeping mulberries carried by local landscape nurseries are NOT fruiting mulberries...they are sterile. This is because for landscaping purposes, folks think that mulberries are a mess (and they can be if they are placed carelessly). So make sure, if you want the edible berries, to ask the local suppliers about them.

Here's another tip. You cannot, as a landscape nursery, forsee EVERYONES desires in an area. So when you go to your local nursery and do not see what you want, go to the owner/manager and ask if they can order it. Usually there is a local wholesale supplier(or two or three) that can get it for them.

I still have trouble finding what I want locally, so I do order frquently from Raintree, and haven't had any real problems with it.

The only big problem with your idea to bury the placentas is the enormous amounts of hormones that will leach into the water table and thus into the drinking water supply. Doesn't seem the thing for an organic gardener to do.
I'm just a scientist,so I usually can't help myself worrying about the environment.

Really?? I've never heard of planting a placenta having adverse effects. What kinds of harmful hormones would it release that aren't present in other types of decomposing animal matter? I guess it might contain high levels of progesterone or estrogen (I don't know that it does, just guessing), but aren't those present in human urine (especially female) too? And I thought urine was okay for the garden (not that I'm planning to pee in my veggies, mind you! LOL). I know there are pregnancy hormones and labor hormones and oxytocin and all that stuff, but I've never heard of the levels present in a placenta being harmful to the environment. And it just seems like those are all things that have rough equivalents in nature--of course, most mammals eat their offspring's placenta, but then don't they distribute the waste products through their urine and feces?

I'm really curious about your input on this, as this is a problem I've really never heard of, and of course I don't want to put anything in my soil that's going to damage the environment. I'm really *not* trying to start a debate (I really don't enjoy them), but I'd really like to hear more on this so I can appropriately reevaluate our decision as to what to do with the placentas. Any additional resources you can provide on the issue would be great, too.

Thanks!

Heather

Thanks for the tips, and for the reassurance on ordering from Raintree. I wish we had a Raintree here in the Southeast--what a great catalog, and I wish I could do their workshops and volunteer days and so on.

Anyway, I appreciate the thoughts on finding what I'm looking for at local nurseries, and if I can't find it, I'll feel confident in ordering from Raintree. I suspect I'll be doing some of that anyway.

Thanks.

Heather

Placental hormones are high.
Don't know what you do with a placenta,they used to go to drug makers, I think.
Google each of these one at a time:
Placental hormones
Birth control pills water pollution
estrogen water pollution
placental hormones water pollution

Brennewoman took the words right outta my mouth - weeping mulberries aren't going to produce fruit. A weeping pussy willow is an alternative that the kiddos will probably "cotton to," ha ha. I don't know if they will grow large enough for them to be playing underneath them, but the branches are great for cutting and the tree is interesting to look at all year round. Salix caprea pendula 'Weeping Sally' is sold by Wayside but their prices are high.