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 June 2005 Back to Table of Contents Back to Archives Main Page Section: Home & Garden Carried Through Time... By Sharon Schultz
I wanted to cry. I loved this plant. I loved how these wonderful women had carried it through time. It was a living family heirloom, as precious as any jewel. I picked it gently up out of the dirt and put it in a bowl of water. I sat and watched it. I talked to it. I could feel those three women standing in my kitchen looking at the plant and looking at me. Heirloom plants have captured hearts for generations. Cuttings and seeds have been maintained and passed down to preserve the most prized plants of the time and the personal and cultural history that went with them. Because of the efforts of thousands of dedicated “seed savers,” many great heirloom varieties still exist. Non-profit organizations, such as the Seed Savers Exchange, are devoted to saving heirloom varieties of flowers, vegetables, and fruits from extinction. Local nurseries carry a wide variety of heirloom seeds and some plants for backyard gardens.
In recent history, heirlooms have become increasingly significant not only for the sake of nostalgia, the preservation of history, or the search for a better tasting tomato, but also for the concern for genetic diversity. An heirloom plant is a plant that has been around at least 50 years. It is open-pollinated which means that its seeds will produce the same plant that will continue to adapt to its growing condition year after year. Seeds used to be gathered and saved for the following season’s crops. This practice protected the genetic make-up that made specific plants thrive. Modern man-made hybrid and genetically engineered plants, however, produce few seeds or none at all. Their seeds will not produce the same plant but will create a plant with the characteristics of only one parent. You can’t use their seeds. To grow these hybrid plants then, the farmer and the gardener need to repurchase the hybrid seeds each year. Man-made hybrids and genetically engineered plants have been altered to make them yield more, ripen faster, and produce more unified fruits and flowers. They may have compromised taste and fragrance, and there is concern that they may not be as appealing to the birds and the bees. As with any endangered life, and the alteration of life, we’re not really sure of what we’re loosing or changing, So the embrace of heirloom plants has progressed from a sentimental attachment to the past to a deep concern for the future of the earth’s eco-systems. That little plant of my great-grandmother’s could generate a grand discussion about our environment, sustainable organic farming, and the sources of our food. In my little corner of the world, I care for the roses my Dad cared for, I smell the lemon lilies my dear friend’s grandmother grew, and my son plants the sunflowers my grandfather planted. I think of these wonderful people as I tend to my garden and am reminded about where I came from and who I am. I look at my son and I think about where we’re going. I like that I am carrying these plants along into the future and that maybe I’m helping to keep the world a bit more ecologically sound. My great-grandmother’s plant turned out to be as hearty as those women were who kept it before me. By the next morning, the leaves had drawn in enough water to be sturdy again. I eventually replanted it in soil. As it grew, I gave cuttings to my siblings with solemn instructions that they too were now keepers of those beautiful silver green leaves and little red flowers that long ago covered the wall in the kitchen down on our great-grandmother’s farm.
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