Page 27 - Jo Ann Gardner & Heirloom Gardens

ISSUE : Issue 63

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1993/6/1

Jo Ann, from The Heirloom Garden "I came across very old strains of Holly? hocks, some quite close to the wild kind, with pale pink single blooms on thirteen-foot stalks. Inevitably, the colour range had narrowed to shades of pink and rose, except for the , -_- • ? gorgeous dark purple Black Hollyhock I found growing in one garden in the area. Its flowers tied up, but they re plant-'Q'gg'Q''Qy5_fl'g(QgjxJnghggagrQ55'jt,,t,,gpgjal5rQ • gj, back • on manageable six- ed by the house. to eight-foot stalks: the flowers of my dreams. I traced their origin back three generations to Elizabeth MacDonald, whom I later saw in a faded photograph, still handsome at age 90 and Anyway, this (c rotchety) standing beside a great stand of her favourite flowers." guy--there was this gor? geous stand. And then he said to me, "My mother planted them." He remembered them a long time ago. He thought she planted them about 1900; he wasn't sure. But anyway, what this old codger did was dig up a clump of Golden-glow and planted it by his house. He had made his own house further down. And this is a man who couldn't care less about flowers. But he had gone and dug up a clump of Golden-glow, and now he had his own, and it was there. Why? Be? cause his mother and everything was in? vested in the flower, and it's like, you know, it's a living memory of them.... It'll be Dahlias in one family; it'll be Roses in another family.... What you need Leather Works by John C. Roberts ...Extraordinary St. Ann's Bay Country Gander Handcrafts Specializing in Cape Breton Quality Handcrafts & CONVENIENCE STORE • Light Groceries • Sundries • Camping Supplies ENGLISHTOWN 929-2750 Donelda MacAskill, Box 33 Englishtown, NS BOC IHO is a permanent site. You can't have a place that's going to fold tomorrow, or its fund? ing's going to leave. You've got to have a place where the plants are secure.... I know a woman in Sydney who has very old plants, and she's protecting them. But I wouldn't say that there are too many of them. I would say it's sporadic, and there are specific plants being protected, here and there around the island. (Which isn't suf? ficient.) No. No, because, you know, these people are usually older peo? ple; and they're dying every year. And the house gets sold. And there go the plants. Now, I traced a Hollyhock in our area--I call it Rhodena's Holly? hock. And I have seeds of it now, and I grow it. So Bags Buckets • INDIAN BROOK • CAPE BRETON ISLAND BOC 1H0 Between Baddeck & Ingonish on Cabot Trail OPEN DAILY 9 - 5 (nnid-May thru Oct) or by appointment (902) 929-2414 PIPER'S TRAILER COURT Featuring; Fully Licensed Dining Room Laundromat Mini-Mart Ocean-Side Campsites Swimming Pool 929-2233 929-2067 Indian Brook on the Cabot Trail (Halfway between Baddeck and Ingonish) From either direction on the Cabot Trail, plan for comfort and welcome Piper's Old Manse GUEST HOUSE with Bed and Breakfast . OPEN YEAR ROUND . In either direction, it's a beautiful way to go!

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