Passalong PlantsPassalongs are plants that have survived in gardens for decades by being handed from one person to another. These botanical heirlooms, such as flowering almond, blackberry lily, and night-blooming cereus, usually can't be found in neighborhood garden centers; about the only way to obtain a passalong plant is to beg a cutting from the fortunate gardener who has one. In this lively and sometimes irreverent book (don't miss the chapter on yard art), Steve Bender and Felder Rushing describe 117 such plants, giving particulars on hardiness, size, uses in the garden, and horticultural requirements. They present this information in the informal, chatty, and sometimes humorous manner that your next-door neighbor might use when giving you a cutting of her treasured Confederate rose. And, of course, because they are discussing passalong plants, they note the best method of sharing each plant with other gardeners. Because you might not spy a banana shrub or sweet pea in your neighborhood, the authors list mail-order sources for the heirloom plants described. They also give tips on how to organize your own plant swap. Although the authors live in and write about the South, many of the plants they discuss will grow elsewhere. from the book Amid the clamor of press releases touting the newest, improved versions of this bulb or that perennial, what keeps people interested in old-fashioned plants? Nostalgia, for one thing. It's hard not to feel a special fondness for that Confederate rose, night-blooming cereus, or alstroemeria lovingly tended by your grandmother when you were a child. Such heirloom plants evoke memories of your first garden, of relatives and neighbors that have since passed on, of prized bushes you accidentally annihilated with your bicycle. Recall the time you first received a particular plant, and you'll recall the person who gave it to you. |
Contents
Foreword by Allen Lacy ix Chapter Five | 139 |
about this book Chapter | 171 |
Chapter | 195 |
Copyright | |
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beautyberry beautybush blooms blossoms blue Botanical name bulbs bush called cannas Catalog China Light Chinese tallow clumps clusters color coral bean crinums cultivars daylily fall fast Mail-order source feet tall Hardiness fence fern fertile foliage folks fragrant fruit full sun Soil grass green growing heirloom plants herbaceous perennial high Hardiness inches kerria kudzu lady lantana leaves light shade Soil lily look mock-orange moderate Mail-order source moist montbretia nurseries orange partial sun Soil passalong plants peony perilla phlox pink plastic flowers propagate purple quince rhizomes rose SB Common name seedlings seeds shrub soil Growth rate South Southern catalpa species spiderwort spirea spring sprout stems summer sun or light Telephone tiger lily tire Type United States Light weigela well-drained Growth rate well-drained soil Growth wild wildflowers winter yard yellow zinnias Zones 4-9 Origin Zones 7-10 Origin