dalylilies
- Canna from Mama’s yard
One of the nicest things about plants is that they tend to reproduce themselves. Unlike other living things that are demanding, like puppies and kittens (please spay and neuter your pets) plants are easy to give away, or to take as keepsakes. My mom died last March and I dug some of her cannas up. While digging, I found a baby redbud tree amongst the cannas, so I dug it up, too. Now everytime I see the cannas or the little tree, I think of my mom. Now that I think about it, most of my passalong plants are from people who died. But, for heavens sake, don’t wait that long if your granny or friends or the lady down the street has something you like. If it spreads and otherwise reproduces itself, please ask. Most gardeners are friendly and will appreciate the fact that you’ve noticed their work. But please ask, if someone is living there, because many of us, including me, have gone into our garden and noticed little holes where something used to be. Nothing major like a tree gone, but maybe some bulbs, in my case, anenomes.
That said, I have to admit that I carry a shovel in my truck. I had more luck in the deep south than I have in Oklahoma, but I still carry the shovel with hopes up. In the south there are lots of places where old plantation houses and other buildings have been abandoned and fallen down. But years after anyone set foot there, daffodils or naked ladies, or heirloom roses are coming up. Roses are easy to make cuttings from, and the bulbs I just dig up. I don’t like to dig things in the wild because sometimes you’re depleting a plant from nature, but I did dig up a tiny baby saw palmetto beside a road in Louisiana. It’s still growing in a pot in Oklahoma.
Some of the best heirloom roses come from old cemetaries. There is a group in Texas called the Rose Rustlers who make cuttings from heirloom roses growing in old cemetaries and on old farms. (They ask permission from places that are occupied by the living.) They have rediscovered roses that were long thought to be vanished.
I like passalong plants because they are often an old variety, an heirloom plant. They’re so expensive in catalogs but if you know somebody who has them, they are usually happy to share. My favorite heirloom passalong plants, ones that cost mega bucks in the catalogs, are spider lilies (also called hurricane lilies and lycoris) and naked ladies (also called surprise lilies.) Until I moved to the south and saw them blooming in late summer and early autumn, I’d never seen them. They were always around very old houses. When they bloom later this summer, I’ll post photos.
Besides naked ladies and spider lilies, some of the best passalong plants are daylilies, cannas, daffodils, seedling trees and aloes, which make babies right and left. Roses are easy to root. In fact, I think I’ll post on how to root roses next.
