Comments on: Passalong, heirloom, and cottage garden plants

By: Garden Bloggers Bloom Day June 2009 — Cold Climate Gardening

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day June 2009 — Cold Climate Gardening — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:55:10 +0000

[...] native rose (probably Rosa virginiana, photo here) [...]

By: Garden Bloggers Bloom Day June 2008 — Cold Climate Gardening

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day June 2008 — Cold Climate Gardening — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:07:33 +0000

[...] native rose (probably Rosa virginiana, photo here) [...]

By: Annie in Austin

Annie in Austin — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 15:55:22 +0000

What a wonderful, thought-provoking post, Kathy, making all of us consider whether the plants we grow might be called Heirloom, Passalong, or Cottage garden flowers… and which ones can be all three.

The bulbs here were some Ice Follies daffodils – you and MSS had more of a treasure hunt when you moved in!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

By: Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 11:12:59 +0000

Kim–maybe the “practical” factor was at work: those old-timers needed everything to be practical in order to survive, so of course they needed good vegetables in order to thrive, but by the same token, their flowers couldn’t have been much.

MSS–I tend to favor fragrance myself. I was shocked–shocked, I tell you–to learn that many lilies don’t have scent. My very first lily was an Asiatic, but it was only after it was blooming in my garden that I learned Asiatics are scentless. I had already learned this about peonies and roses, so why it should shock me about lilies, I don’t know. Probably because I had spent money on the lily, and thus felt gypped.

By: M Sinclair Stevens (Texas)

M Sinclair Stevens (Texas) — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 02:44:34 +0000

Our paths through the garden have run a parallel course for all that we’re separated by climate. I inherited all sorts of heirloom bulbs when I moved into this house. That sparked my interest in other types of heirlooms (tomatoes, roses, old-fashioned flowers from Select Seeds) and also in cottage gardening. One reason I like old-fashioned flowers is that I value scent over lavish form.

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 01:12:16 +0000

Kathy, what a great post. I have had some of those same thoughts re: the worthiness heirloom plants… I am just now coming around to some of these, like the ‘Black Watchman’ hollyhocks that were once grown at Monticello and are about to bloom in my backyard.

Curiously, I was sold right away on heirloom vegetables but not heirloom ornamentals. I wonder why?

By: Jane

Jane — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:40:30 +0000

I look forward to your essay on creeping bellflower. It’s pretty enough, but it is sooo hard to get rid of when it is in the wrong place. Although I once saw a drift of something white (yarrow, maybe or something looser like sweet cicely) mixed with creeping bellflower in a vacant lot that was lovely. Too bad the city mowed it all down

By: Nicole

Nicole — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:54:48 +0000

What a wonderful thing to find a garden with so many flowers already there. On our new lot no such luck, but I do have quite a formidable collection of passalong plants from friends all over. Crotons and bougainvilleas were an easy one-I toted cuttings by the dozen in my hand luggage! Sharing plants is quite a tradition in most Caribbean islands ( and I guess among gardeners worldwide). Though I have encountered people hostile to the idea of sharing cuttings/offsets.n no time.

By: Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:58:38 +0000

Kelly–Thorpe’s book is the only one attempting to document authentic cottage gardening (that is, as it was historically understood) in North America. The book is out of print, but can still be found.

Entangled–I think I did read the Market Bulletins, right after I read Two Gardeners the first time. Your grandmother sounds like a bona-fide cottage gardener, before the term was co-opted by those with money.

Jane–Look for my essay on the creeping bellflower in the August/September issue of Horticulture.

By: Jane

Jane — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:33:10 +0000

I’ve been a recipient and a donor. My house is 60 years old and there was a peony farm across the street when it was built (sadly gone now), so we have lovely peonies. The little wild violets which I love and the creeping bellflower that I curse pass themselves along without help from anyone. I have lovely irises and primulas from my dear mother-in-law. Lately I have been giving, not getting, though – I unloaded a pile of herbs on my community garden’s shared herb bed (mint, french tarragon, chives, sorrel, rhubarb and thyme) and I’ve been giving lily of the valley to anyone who shows even a mild interest as a lot of it is being dug out right now to make room for the replacement of my sidewalks.