Page 26 - Jo Ann Gardner & Heirloom Gardens

ISSUE : Issue 63

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1993/6/1

small flower. Very small, a double petal. With intense, intense fragrance. And long stems. You just pick a few, put them in a vase in a room and, you know, the whole room just--it's almost overpowering. You know you've got something here. So, I began to research this. And I corre? sponded with all the experts in the field. Nobody knew. Somebody said they thought they knew what it was, but it was no long? er cultivated. Well, then I began to discover more popu? lations around the peninsula. In fact, there's a marvellous population at the convent in lona. And I got permission to go and dig some of the bulbs up, to send around to people. And this is another thing you do if you're an heirloom plant nut like me. You want to make sure that it survives. So, you tend to disperse seeds, plants, fruits, whatever it is. You give them to other people. And if you fail with it, you know, they'll succeed with it The point is that (these plants are) being threatened now. They're being threatened by what I call the 3 D's. The dish. The deck. And the 'dozer. You go to a place one year and there's a vintage shrubbery from the 1930s; you go there the next year and there's a deck. Or you go there and there's a deck, and the Foxglove and the Hollyhock are underneath the deck. In other words, not everybody that has old plants growing around them thinks they're the cat's pyjamas. They might go down to the local nursery and just prefer to buy whatever's in stock. But some people have very strong associations with them. Now, I remember a guy called up: "We've got this Phlox that's growing, and my grandmother planted it 70-something years ago. It's just growing in the weeds." And they want a safe place to put it. This is The Gem of Victoria County.. The Goose Cove Pottery & Gift Shop is located on the Cabot Trail off Highway #105 on Exit 11 Open 7 days a week between 9 am and 5 pm from mid June till Labour Day Visitors are welcome to browse at the pottery studio located on site The Goose Cove r) The Goose Cove Pottery & Gift Shop Carole Ann MacDonald Potter R. R.#4 (St. Ann's) Baddeck, Nova Scotia BOE IBO (902) 929-2293 > 'OTTERY & GIFT SHOP a wonderful point. If you had a place to put these things that are going to be dis? turbed. And I did manage to get a piece of that. And it's a beautiful Phlox. It's white with a little pale violet eye. You know, that particular cultivar probably doesn't even exist any more. (Are you finding families who are preserv? ing and cherishing their old ornamental garden?) Yes. But often in a very disorga? nized way. A lot of these people are not conscious gardeners, they're not historians. For instance, there's this old guy--I think he's over 90 now. I went with Timmy MacNeil; he took me on one of my rambles to meet people. And (this old guy's) a kind of crotchety old fellow. And we got there and he's, you know, "Who are you?" So Timmy tried to establish who he was-- that was hard enough. And I tried--that was even worse. So I told him what I was interested in. I had heard that there was Golden-glow growing there. Now, Golden- glow is a member of the Sunflower family, and that's a cultivar. And the cultivar's name is Laciniata, or Golden-glow. It's double-flowered. And in the wild it's a single flower; it looks different. The cultivar always looks different from the wild form. It's a change, usually, in col? our or shape or whatever. So, he just mo? tioned. He said, "Up there, up there!" He couldn't be bothered with us. Oh, this crotchety man. So we went "up there." And there were the remains of the farm, and the barn. And there was the most glorious stand of this Golden-glow. It blooms in late summer, in August; it's yellow. And it's like the floral emblem of the old farmstead. It was in every old farmstead. Tena Matheson, who used to live at our place, when she wrote me, she said, "And there was always Gold? en-glow by the kitchen door." But of course, by the time we came it was gone. The reason why it was by the kitchen door, or it was by the front door, was because it's a tall, gangly plant with weak stems, and it's protected a lit? tle bit from the wind. Holly? hocks, also, were always planted by the house. They al? ways have to be )3eo k5laixty C~. Ci QUILTS raft blpp POTTERY . '.r''''.'' ? HANDCRAFTS ANTIQUES & SOUVENIRS COLLECTABLES The traditional warmth of handcrafted Mar? itime giftware, with unique gift suggestions and curious mementoes of your visit. • Open Daily, Mid-June to Labour Day • ENGLISHTOWN (JERSEY COVE) Route 312 • (902)929-2992 just 1 km. north, across the Englishtown Ferry Drive the Great Circle around St. Ann's Bay

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