Most people’s introduction to flower remedies is a small, brown bottle of Rescue Remedy. This is probably the most famous of the 38 Bach Flower Remedies originated by Dr Edward Bach, a Harley Street doctor and homeopath, in the 1930s in England.

Today they are shipped and used all over the world.
Bach may have been the beginning but there are now so many flower remedies you are spoiled for choice.

American healer Richard Katz added another 100 remedies to the original Bach ones. Since then, remedies from all over the world have been produced. There are remedies that have been invigorated by sunlight and remedies made by moonlight.

You may want to try the essences that come from the Australian Bush or from the rainforest. There are Angel flower remedies and Alaskan ones. There are no clinical studies to prove whether they work and a scientific analysis of a remedy will tell you it contains alcohol and water. But many practitioners, who usually prescribe flower remedies alongside a hands-on technique, such as kinesiology, are convinced of their effectiveness.

There’s even a book by British GP Andrew Tresidder, called The Lazy Person’s Guide to Emotional Healing, whose patients have no complaints about his flower healing.

It’s important to remember that these remedies are catalysts for change in your life. The theory is that they capture the true essence of a flower - which is the most highly evolved part of a plant - in water, which then contains a healing vibration that can bring about transformation on an emotional, spiritual and mental level.

The flowers are taken from wild plants, bushes, and trees and are then prepared in a special way which includes being left out in a crystal bowl full of spring water in sunlight which is then said to potentiate the remedy. It is this liquid that is diluted down many times and preserved in brandy to be sold commercially.

One of the joys of flower remedies is that they are completely safe, making them a wonderful introduction to complementary healing. They work on a vibrational level and transform negative emotions into positive ones. You can mix different remedies to create the right essence for a particular mood.


The world of flower remedies was stirred by a range of hard hitting essences - the Australian Bush Essences - formulated and produced by a Sydney-based fifth-generation herbalist, Ian White.

They are now outselling the better known Bach Flower Remedies by 4:1 in some UK health stores and a growing number of natural healers are successfully using them as an adjunct to therapies such as natural fertility treatments, relexology and aromatherapy.

Where the 38 original Bach flower remedies tackled problems such as shyness and low self-esteem, the 64 Bush remedies bring flower healing right into the 21st century with essences for sexual abuse, psychic attack, ‘smother love’, stress, sibling rivalry, exam nerves, abundance and even genital herpes.

There are also remedies for attention deficit disorder and dyslexia which, according to White, are simply the result of a child using the wrong parts of their brain to learn and concentrate.

White, who was taught the healing properties of the Australian bush plants by his grandmother, has also now produced 16 different combination tinctures, creams, and mists for problems as diverse as relationship troubles and long haul jet lag.

He says: “As society has changing needs, so new essences from different plants come through to meet those needs. The Bush essences are more geared to the problems of the new century. They work more quickly and address more contemporary problems."


Some practitioners describe flower remedies as “tuning forks for the soul”.

All essences are safe enough to give to children and animals. You can take them with medication and there have never been any recorded side-effects.

To take Bush remedies, keep the bottle by the bedside and take seven drops, under the tongue, when you wake and seven drops again at night. For acute problems, increase the dosage to five or six times a day for two or three days. For longer term and underlying problems, the block or pattern creating the imbalance should shift within two weeks.

Many practitioners now use a combination of different types of flower remedies, so that very specific situations can be addressed.