Heirloom Gardening

I’m really looking forward to my irises coming up this spring, primarily because my 90 year old grandmother dug them out of her garden last fall and gave my mother and myself about 8 different varieties.  The irises that my grandmother detached from her garden were at one point in my great-grandmother’s garden who lived to be 95, the line might end there or these irises might go back even further, but one thing is for certain it is living history unfolding before my eyes.

While we are inhabitants in a world of genetically engineered foods that are created in a lab for timing, color and size and witnessing cloned sheep and mice, it is refreshing to know exactly where heirloom plants have come from.  It feeds our need for nostalgia that people crave in a world that doesn’t seem to want to look back.

Heirloom gardening is a pure history of a plant, a pedigree of sorts.  If you saved your seeds from your flowers and vegetables this summer and plant them next summer, and if you did that for 50 years…you would have heirloom seeds.  Heirlooms, which are open-pollinated plants, reproduce themselves generation after generation.  Still a little confused?   M. Dianne O’Connell, a Horticulturist and instructor at both Meramec Community College and the Missouri Botanical Garden can enlighten us on the subject, “Heirloom gardening is comprised of herbs, vegetables, bulbs, flowers, shrubs, vines and trees.  They are plants or seeds that have been handed down from one generation to another.  Heirloom plants must be open-pollinated and in cultivation for at least 50 years.  Open-pollinated means that if the seeds produced from the plant are properly saved, they will produce the same variety year after year.  This is not done with using hybrids.”

And hybrids are everywhere, almost every plant at the nursery is a hybrid, most foods you buy at the grocers are hybrids, organic or not.  Our foods flavor has taken a back seat to accommodate for timing and color.  Most heirloom enthusiasts swear to the vegetables and fruits unmatched richness in flavor, sweetness and juiciness.  So, if you are concerned with genetic engineering in foods and the consequences of that you might seek out heirloom foods, they will be assuredly pure, natural, unchanged and in complete harmony with nature.  O’Connell expands on why eating heirloom foods are gaining in popularity, “The tastes are unique to each vegetable since each growing season is different than the last.  There are so many to try and experiment in your garden and the garden centers are now starting to meet the new demand.  We as consumers have become obsessed with the look of a vegetable and through the production process we have not allowed the blemished look to our stores.  Heirlooms are not about shipping techniques that are now demanded in our consumer world.”

Heirloom seeds have special features that distinguish them from hybrid seeds.  The variety of seed should be able to produce itself; antique seeds are always self-pollinated therefore producing plants with the same traits sowing after sowing.  Hybrid seeds are unable to replicate the exact traits year after year.  The variety of plants or seeds must have been introduced at least 50 years ago, although some argue that it is actually 100 years.  The particular cultivar, or variety must have a special history, perhaps tracing the origins to a particular region, or seeds saved from farming families who can recall their beginnings.

O’Connell loves the bond fostered by heirloom gardening, she states, “Heirloom gardening connects one with the past.  It also provides plants with the ability to add fragrance to a garden that has been lost to the hybridization of plants.  The garden usually takes on a more ‘cottage’ look and is less structured.  Using heirloom gardening techniques allows the gardener to express their individual style more easily.”  By incorporating heirloom ideals to an outdoor space you are creating a sense of history, a cultural heritage and in some cases saving varieties from extinction by preserving the past.  If you live in an older home using plants that date back to other eras can enhance the historic accuracy of your haven. 

Often when you hear of heirloom gardening roses are mentioned O’Connell suggests, “The rose has been present in American landscapes from the early settlers.  They even brought their plants with them and noted other roses as they traveled.  The overall fragrance is what the number one factor that was so appreciated was.  The rose is used as an enduring garden symbol and will remain.”

The trend of heirloom gardening is growing and not just among garden aficionados, it is now gaining ground among those who merely dabble in the dirt.  In fact The Smithsonian Institution in Washington opened an heirloom garden in 2002; they filled it with hollyhocks, flowering tobacco and sweet peas to name a few.  O’Connell not only savors her heirloom vegetables but she says, “I also enjoy the use of vines to add a vertical element to the garden that is all too often overlooked.  For example the Ex.Dutchman’s Pipe, Akebia quinata, Trumpet Vine, Bittersweet, Hyacinth Bean Vine, Cypress Vine are all heirloom vines in my garden.

I eagerly anticipate my little slice of my own families living history and I hope one day I can pass it down to others.  In the meantime, next time you are visiting your grandparents be sure to have a shovel in tow as well as a oral or written history of whatever gem you find to start your own heirloom treasures.

Where to Find Heirloom Seeds:

• www.rareseeds.com, 417-924-1222
• www.seedsavers.org, 319-382-5990
• Quarterly magazine called Heirloom Gardener