Page 28 - Jo Ann Gardner & Heirloom Gardens

ISSUE : Issue 63

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1993/6/1

where did Rhodena get her seeds from? She got them from a woman named Elizabeth. And Elizabeth gave them to her daughter. And Elizabeth's daughter Margaret was the source of the Hollyhocks in our area. We couldn't check to find the original plants where Elizabeth MacDonald used to live. Because (it was) recently bulldozed, the whole place. But luckily, the seeds were passed on. Now, she didn't have the Hollyhocks any more either. For some rea? son, they failed. Hollyhocks are not a perennial. They're a biennial. And if they're in a good place, they'll seed themselves from year to year. But if they're not, they'll die out. And the only way to start them again is with seed. But she had luckily passed the seed on to somebody else, who lived at Little Nar? rows- -Kathleen . So I went to see Kathleen, and there they were. Kathleen gave me seed; I have them in my garden; and I pass seed around to a lot of people. Because one of the Hollyhocks that she had Riverside Cleaners Cape Breton's Only Drive-Thru DryCleaning KINGS ROAD • SYDNEY Lowest Drycleaning Prices in Town! in her possession was called the Black Hollyhock. And it's very dark purple. It's beautiful--just a beautiful flower. It looks black in the bud. And when it opens up, it's kind of a claret colour--white in the middle. And when the flower gets wet, the colour actually comes off on your hand. And it was used as a food dye, to give herb tea a nice tea colour--or wine. So it was used herbally. But around here I don't think it was used herbally.... I'm fascinated by the fact that these peo? ple, in their hardships, did this. But I think this is why they did it. Because they needed that in their life. They needed some form, some release. You see Rhubarb in the flower garden. Now, Rhubarb they did use. So they had something useful in there. But you know, the Forget-me-nots--what are they going to do with Forget-me-nots? They grow them because they gave them spiritual sus? tenance in some way.... I mean, there's a zillion Petunias out there called White Cloud, right? And you take it and you put it in your garden. It blooms beautifully all summer, and then it's dead. So you can't really form any at? tachment to it, you know. It's not like the Peony that's grown there for 75 years.... BOOKS ARE A GREAT GIFT ANY TIME OF THE YEAR Cape Breton Books First-Rate Literature A Wide Range of Books from Popular to Scholarly "THE DOWNTOWN BOOKSTORE" 361 Charlotte St. SYDNEY B1P1E1 (902) 539-8551 and Lewis Parker Cards: PORTRAIT OF CAPE BRETON HISTORY Roddie C. MacNeil has shown me the first habitation, when the MacNeils first came to Barra Glen, and there was Tansy there. He has two Gaelic words for Tansy--Lus na Fraing (the French weed) and Lus an Righ (the King's weed)--indicating a familiar plant in Scotland where it is native; it's alien here and was probably in? troduced by the Scottish settlers like Roddie's forebears. Tansy is the Scot? tish settler plant par excellence, highly regarded because of its many applications. And it's still growing down by the shore, but it's very weak; WE HAVE INFORMATION ON YOUR PROPERTY • AND YOU SHOULD KNOW WHAT IT IS! We have over 20 pieces of information on every number you see on this map, and we have a number on every property in Cape Breton, Richmond, Victoria, and Inverness Counties. That means we have a number on every property in Cape Breton Island. ~ A SERVICE WORTH INVESTIGATING ~ Cape Breton Land Information Service Property l/lapping and Records Division 66 Wentworth Street, Sydney, N. S. BI P 614 CONTROL SYSTEM of concrete monuments for surveying BASE MAPS: Orthophoto for rural areas, Line Maps for cities, town, villages PROPERTY MAPS with boundary information and ownership information REGISTRY ASSISTANCE for government and private users Your Property is Our Business • Ask Us About It TELEPHONE (902) 563-2280 or 563-2281 From BADDECK

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