Cold Climate Gardening

10 responses so far ↓

• 1 Tracy // Jun 27, 2007 at 1:06 pm

  Wow, it’s expensive ($140 for one ounce!), but I found it at this Minnesota nursery with a good selection of MN natives.

  I love this plant just as a nice flowering ornamental for shade, so even if it’s not the best poison ivy cure, it sure is pretty.

  http://www.cannonvalleynursery.com/output/moreinfo/Impatiens_capensis.asp

• 2 Ki // Jun 27, 2007 at 8:52 pm

  Our daughter is very allergic to poison ivy. She would break out in weeping lesions if the cat happened to brush up against poison ivy and she petted the cat. We found a product called Tecnu Poison Oak-n-Poison Ivy. It’s the only product that worked for her. It works by washing out the urushiol oil that’s the irritant in the poison ivy. Since the oil is the irritant, I thought we could use alcohol, detergents, paint thinner but nothing worked but Tecnu. BTW, animal are not affected by poison ivy - only humans.

  Here’s more information about Tecnu.
  http://poisonivy.aesir.com/view/technu.html

• 3 Ellis Hollow // Jun 27, 2007 at 8:53 pm

  It’s a relative of impatiens, if I recall correctly. If your reader wants to swing by my place when the seed is ripe, they are welcome to all they can gather. But it’s got to be a huge challenge to gather, what with the seed pods spraying the seed all over the place when you touch them. Our kids had a ball with them when they were young. They called them poppers, as probably generations of kids have called them in the past.

• 4 Kathy Purdy // Jun 27, 2007 at 9:05 pm

  Ki, I have heard of Tecnu, but I haven’t had any personal experience with it, so I’m glad you spoke up.

  Ellis Hollow, she is in Kansas, otherwise I could let her harvest seed from my place, too. She actually commented on this post, which features a patch of jewel weed thriving in my back yard.

• 5 David // Jun 28, 2007 at 9:56 am

  I’ve used Tecnu for years–it’s the best thing I’ve found. BUT–it doesn’t help much after you’ve broken out. The thing to do is, if you think you MIGHT have touched poison ive, wash up with Tecnu as soon as possible, prefereably within a couple of hours after exposure. It draws the poison to the surface of your skin and out. I think it contains mineral spirits, so if you can’t find Tecnu, plain old mineral spirits might work also.

• 6 nickie // Jun 28, 2007 at 10:23 pm

  Jewel weed works wonders!!

  At least with stinging nettles it does…

  I use it when I am out hiking. Jewel weed conviently likes to grow with poison Ivy and Stinging Nettles near by. It sooths the sting right away when you rub the sap on.

• 7 Craig Levy // Jun 30, 2007 at 7:22 am

  This is a post after my heart. I am highly sensitized to Poison Ivy’s west coast relative Poison Oak and easily break out with casual exposure. I stopped buying fresh-cut Christmas trees because I would always break out after bringing them in and setting them up, speculating the growing fields had it or browsing deer were rubbing the oils from another location against the foliage.

  Tecnu works effectively and should be used for washing clothing, tools, and gloves as the oils remain on them too. I take an oral steroid during my worse out breaks and have a prescription strength cortisone cream for topical use. The cream works great for bug bites too! There used to be systemic drug that acted as a preventative but the FDA removed it from the market. The company is trying to reformulate it or reapply for its use but so far it’s just a rumor.

  Our former house had ample amounts of poison oak, especially along the driveway. We left it alone because of its usefulness of stabilizing a steep hill and for being a wildlife sanctuary, especially for birds feasting on white berries during the winter.

  What that meant for us, and I would suggest this to your writer, is a constant awareness of its presence whenever we were outside. Not wandering without forethought and recognizing the plants in all seasons was imperative and eventually became instinctive. We became quite good at spotting and removing the seedlings and always followed up by promptly washing the exposed areas. The thicker skin on finger pads was mostly resistant to the oils but why take a chance and inadvertently spread it to the more sensitive skin on inner arms or face.

  I can’t verify if these companies are reliable but here are a few sources for Impatiens capensis (Jewelweed) seed: Sandy Mountain Herbs, Easyliving Wildflowers (seed available in fall), and Prairie Moon Nursery (the least expensive).

• 8 Kathy Purdy // Jun 30, 2007 at 3:07 pm

  David, thanks for clarifying how Tecnu works. Craig, thanks for the seed source info and the coping hints.

• 9 Jennifer // Jan 21, 2008 at 3:02 pm

  Hi-I found the wonderful benefits of jewelweed a couple of years ago. We have a ton on our property and I came up with a heal-all concoction that I sell in our little town of Bat Cave/Chimney Rock, NC. I call it “Itch Witch” and I use it on everything, literally (cuts, scrapes, burns, hives, dry skin, bee stings, and of course all the poison ivy/oak/sumac and contact dermatitis). If anyone is interested, let me know. I use it on my 1yr old son-so it’s very safe for infants. Coconut oil is my base and I use a couple of other flowers that are astringents as a tea that mixes with the juice of the jewelweed. My husband and I are very allergic to poison ivy/oak and this stuff works better than a shot of steroids. It seems to help eczema as well…
  Blessings!

• 10 clint // May 21, 2008 at 11:12 am

  I am in upstate SC about 30 miles from the mountains of western NC and all my buddies say jewelweed it the greatest thing for poison oak/ivy sumack but it does not grow here I guess I need to take a ride to Bat cave to Jennifers store if I knew the name of it

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