AS a homeopath, Jenny Howarth has travelled the world sourcing flower essences for for healing remedies, then she realised what was on her own doorstep - the flora of Ilkley Moor.

"I thought ‘Why am I using essences from places like Australia, India and Africa when I can use what’s right here in Ilkley?' It's a place with an ancient spiritual and healing energy," says Jenny, who regularly heads out onto the moor, taking essences from heather, gorse, bracken, soft rush and berries. Extracting essences by dipping plants into water, she uses them to create a body care range, Verbeia, named after the Celtic-Roman goddess of Wharfedale.

Now Jenny has joined forces with an Ilkley complementary therapy business steeped in a long tradition of fusing science with nature. Bailey Flower Essences and Verbeia, jointly called Yorkshire Flower Essences Ltd, provide the UK’s largest collection of essences and remedies for natural healing.

Bailey Flower Essences was founded by the late scientist and University of Bradford senior lecturer in electronic engineering, Dr Arthur Bailey.

Dr Bailey, who died in 2008, was an engineering scientist and chartered engineer, with a lifelong fascination for flowers. It was while working at Bradford University that he became interested in dowsing and healing. He joined the British Society of Dowsers, becoming the president, and was well known in the field of dowsing and essences.

Through his work with electronics he developed lighting units, pumps and other equipment, but he also spent many years studying dowsing, concluding that while he couldn't find any scientific reason for it to work, he knew it did. It was early on in his dowsing that Arthur found his first six flower essences in his garden, in 1967, and he went on to travel the world, seeking essences.

Bailey Flower Essences was based in Ilkley for 50 years. Still based in Nelson Road in the town, Yorkshire Flower Essences is now run by his widow, Chris Bailey, Jenny Howarth and homeopath and accountant Nicky Whitehead, and provides more than 101 essences and 20 composites for conditions such as grief, anger, obsession and depression. The essences bring the healing energy of plants into drops which can be taken internally, on the skin or in bath water.

"Dr Bailey is often quoted as saying: 'Much to my surprise, I found it worked'," says Jenny. "He spent a long time trying to analyse, in a scientific way, healing by flowers, and he accepted that he couldn't. He just knew that it worked."

Adds Jenny, who met Dr Bailey and saw him dowsing: “I’ve been an avid follower of the Bailey essences for many years, the family is well respected in the industry.

Flower essences were recorded in Ancient Egypt, with essence recipes engraved on pyramids. Working on the idea that water picks up energy from flowers, British homeopath Edward Bach promoted flower essences in the 1930s, including the Rescue Remedy we know today. He gathered dew drops and cut flowers to put in the water. But Jenny's method involves bending flowers into water, not cutting them. "In Middleton Woods in Ilkley there are bluebells that can be easily bent and left in the sunshine to make an essence," says Jenny, who uses bamboo sticks to keep them bent. "The water takes on the flower's energy, in the same way it takes on energy of rocks."

Ilkley's healing powers date back to ancient times, evident in the carvings in its moorland rocks. Inspired by Wharfedale's Celtic goddess Verbeia, Jenny places a bowl of water on top of Ilkley's rocks, including its Fylfot stone carvings. At this summer's solstice sunrise she joined a group of people above White Wells, they made an essence of "what the moor was to us" then sprinkled it on areas of the moor. "It was a healing process after the moor fire, drawing essences from the moor and returning it," says Jenny.

Energised in sunlight, then preserved in alcohol, essences capture the vibrations and healing properties of plants and minerals. "It starts on the principle of everything being in vibration, which is a basic concept of physics," says Jenny, who set up a homeopathy centre in Ilkley nearly two decades ago. Initially, she created moorland flower essences to be sprayed into the air or on pulse points, or dropped onto the pillow, to aid sleep, and as interest grew, she developed body care products, combining essences with therapeutic essential oils. The products include a morning pick-me-up, a mid-afternoon energy boost and a calming essence for evening.

"For Verbeia products, I use plants typical of Ilkley Moor - heather, which boosts energy and improves sleep; gorse, for relaxation; bracken for cleansing and calm; soft rush for stillness and some berries which clear the mind," says Jenny.

While flower essences aren't designed to replace conventional medicines, they are becoming increasingly popular to help with various aspects of mental and physical health.

"It's another aspect of the complementary approach to health," says Jenny. "The body always wants to find its way back to natural health - these essences kickstart the process if you live well. GPs today are more open to the idea of people taking more control of their own health."

Yorkshire Flower Essences a

Jenny, a registered practitioner with the British Flower and Vibrational Essences Association and a member of the British Association of Flower Essence Producers, is holding a workshop on making essences at this year's Ilkley Complementary Medicine Festival on October 29 and 30.

* Visit yorkshirefloweressences.com