It seems fitting, on Saint Patrick's Day, to make a list of plants that bring luck, you know, just in case. Let’s start with the classics: lavender and roses. No garden should be without them - lavender for luck, roses for love.

Honesty and sage attract prosperity to the household. It is said that if sage grows well in your garden, you’ll never lack for anything. Honesty specifically pertains to the increase of money, because of its round seed pods that look like coins.

Lucky bamboo brings happiness, prosperity and long life. Ivy growing on a house will protect the inhabitants from curses and evil spirits.

Basil is a potent love charm, used frequently for this purpose by those so inclined. It also keeps fights and gossip at bay and ensures happiness and harmony in the household. Basil is an auspicious plant in general, it promotes good health and long life and keeps travelers safe on their journeys.

We can't bring up this particular holiday without mentioning the four leaf clover, the universal symbol of good luck.

If none of these good luck plants is heavy duty enough for your needs, here’s the showpiece: white swallow-wort. Old wives’ tales have it that if you manage to get a piece of it built into the skin of your palms, you will be able to open any lock, you won’t be harmed by anything made of metal, you will get the ability to find treasure and you will understand and speak the language of animals. Don’t go out chasing for it, it never grows in the same place for more then one year, after which it moves, skipping three rivers at a time, and you only have a chance to find it in the same place again every nine years. Still, useful.

Author's Bio: 

Main Areas: Garden Writing; Sustainable Gardening; Homegrown Harvest
Published Books: “Terra Two”; “Generations”; "The Plant - A Steampunk Story"; "Letters to Lelia"; "Fair"; "Door Number Eight"; "A Year and A Day"
Career Focus: Author; Consummate Gardener;
Affiliation: All Year Garden; The Weekly Gardener; Francis Rosenfeld's Blog

I started blogging in 2010, to share the joy of growing all things green and the beauty of the garden through the seasons. Two garden blogs were born: allyeargarden.com and theweeklygardener.com, a periodical that followed it one year later. I wanted to assemble an informal compendium of the things I learned from my grandfather, wonderful books, educational websites, and my own experience, in the hope that other people might use it in their own gardening practice.