Manuka Honey and Health

A few weeks ago I removed a rather large old heather from the garden outside my bedroom window. It used to be my cats favourite sunbathing site. They would lie there baking in the sun until they became too hot. Then roll over and nestle under the shade of the heather. But with no cats to use it as a snug sun lounger it has gone. The neighbours' cats were just using it as cover from which to ambush the passing birds. Another good reason for it to go. Today I replanted the area with 2 low growing Leptospermum and some Veronica for ground cover. Now I've been taking Manuka honey over the last week as I keep having a recurring irritating sore throat. My glands are a little uncomfortable so I assume I'm fighting some bug. The next time I go visiting a friend in hospital I'll take along a pot of the Active Manuka honey with me. It'll make a change from grapes and magazines and it may save their skin - in more ways than one. Manuka honey is made by the bees that collect pollen from the Manuka bush (Manuka Leptospermum scoparium) which grows wild in New Zealand. As a gardener I always thought of it as the 'NZ Tea Tree'. They do make a Tea Tree Oil from it which is considered 'richer and warmer' but the more common Tea Tree Oil bought for medicinal uses comes from a different Australian shrub.