Page 30 - Jo Ann Gardner & Heirloom Gardens

ISSUE : Issue 63

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1993/6/1

would be going back--her mother-in-law sent some exorbitant sum--I don't know if it was $2 or $5--for this plant, through the farm paper. Now, this woman lives at Little Narrows, and she's been there since 1940. And she remembers when her mother bought the plant. So the planting is prob? ably 40 years old anyway. And it hasn't significantly spread. So there's proof that the mordant cultivars don't spread like the wild ones. And I found them elsewhere.... In the back yard of the convent, and there's a fence. Well, I went up there with some friends to dig up these White Lilies that I had per? mission to grow. And we were going along in the back yard of the convent, and I was looking over the fence. And over the fence I happened to see, with my greedy eyes, this mordant cultivar. I knew it was the mordant cultivar because it hadn't spread. I just saw these dark pink pokers; it was in August. And next to it was blooming this other plant. It's a species of Yar? row; it's a cultivar, and it's called The Pearl. It was introduced in the turn of the century. It's very nice--little white pompoms. And they look really nice togeth? er. So it looked like somebody had planted it as a garden.... But I mean, this is just to indicate that this stuff is all over the place. It's there. It's just, a lot of it is growing wild.... But Roddie's place is also interesting be? cause it marks the end of an era, too. Now, he and Helen have a very nice shrub collec? tion. They have Spireas and Hydrangeas--a beautiful Hydrangea bush. And his father planted those in 1940. They moved to the house in 1939, and he planted them in 1940 from the plant pedlar. ilang out m your iDackyard this summer. 1 ms year, wny not vacation in a place people irom around tke world come to see: your place. Atlantic (janada. (jreat beaches, great people, and awe-inspirmg scenery - tke only tkmg missing irom a holiday at kome is a mg travel bill. lor a brockure with mlormation atout the Atlantic rrovmces, call 1-800-565-coast. Atlantic 'E Canada A Cocst of Difference Atlantic Canada Agencede Opportunities promotion ec(Hioinii]iie Agency du Canada adantique Helping People Succeed in Business ??Jf Enterprise Societe B(l Cape Breton d'emansion W Corporation du Qgt-Breton Canada And this was the end of the era of the plant pedlar. From the archives Jim St. Clair gave me a record. I forget the guy's name, from Mabou. A big company would establish these people in various places, and they would have the right to sell plants. And they'd go around selling apple trees, fruit bushes, roses. And so a lot of plantings are dat? ed from that. Roddie has a typical shrub? bery of that era. See, that's about 1940--that's about the end of that era. Because the plant pedlar ceased after that, and then there were developments of nurseries and people got plants other ways. They didn't have to rely on that. In my farm, they started with slips. But they proba? bly got apple trees from the plant pedlar. And there was another way they disbursed seeds, and that was through Gold Medal Seed Company. And this is how they got the annuals: Cosmos, Bachelor Buttons. Gold Medal Seed Company. It comes from New York, maybe Buffalo. It's a big seed company. And there was a man--he may still be alive, I don't know--Marble Mountain--who went around as a kid on horseback and peddled these Gold Medal seeds to people. This is the way they got

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