Passalong Plants by Steve Bender, Felder Rushing (With), Allen Lacy (Foreword by)

From the Publisher

Passalongs are plants that have survived in gardens for decades by being handed from one person to another. These botanical heirlooms, such as flowering almond, blackberry lily, and night-blooming cereus, usually can't be found in neighborhood garden centers; about the only way to obtain a passalong plant is to beg a piece from the fortunate gardener who has one. In this lively and sometimes irreverent book (don't miss the chapter on yard art), Steve Bender and Felder Rushing describe 117 such plants, giving particulars on hardiness, size, uses in the garden, and horticultural requirements. They present this information in the informal, chatty, and sometimes humorous manner that your next-door neighbor might use when giving you a cutting of her treasured Confederate rose. And, of course, because they are discussing passalong plants, they note the best method of sharing each plant with other gardeners. What keeps people interested in oldfashioned plants? Nostalgia, for one thing, the authors say: "Heirloom plants evoke memories of your first garden, of relatives and neighbors that have since passed on, of prized bushes you accidentally annihilated with your bicycle. Recall the time you first received a particular plant, and you'll recall the person who gave it to you." Because you might not spy a banana shrub or sweet pea in your neighborhood, the authors list mall-order sources for the heirloom plants described. They also give tips on how to organize your own plant swap. Although the authors live in and write about the South, many of the plants they discuss will grow elsewhere.

Publishers Weekly

What's a passalong plant? Something not always easily come by in garden stores, catalogues, and horticultural centers, and instead passed along by one aficionado to another, sometimes over the fence dividing lawns, beds, or yards. Declare the coauthors, ``To a gardener all other gardeners are friends,'' and if true, this is fortunate, as Bender and Rushing, both Southerners, survey the field for passalongs in their region, and come up with stories to keep their information company: the butterfly bush, for instance, was discovered by a missionary and a reverend, and zinnias have also been known as ``old maids.'' This compendium is designed with clarity in mind and illustrated with small but precise color photographs. Headings are cute to a fault, however, and seem to get worse as the pages turn: ``Holy Satisfactory,'' for example, is followed by ``Wherefore Art Thou Deutzia?'' Also provided is advice on how to get all the passing-along begun. First serial to Countryside. (Nov.)

Library Journal

Two established authors and gardeners reintroduce plants that gardeners pass along to one another but that are hard to find in commercial outlets. While the focus is on the South, where the authors have firsthand knowledge, Northern gardeners will still find this book useful as many of the plants are hardy. Writing in a humorous, casual style, Bender and Rushing describe 117 ``passalong'' plants, including trees, shrubs, vines, annuals, and perennials, as well as plants that are fragrant, invasive, weird, or garish. They devote a page or two to each plant, giving history, propagation, their personal experience, and--briefly--size, hardiness, origin, light and soil needs, and mail-order sources. About every third plant has a photo, but many lesser-known plants are not illustrated. The humor ranges from heavy-handed to hilarious, as in the tongue-in-cheek chapter on kitsch as garden art. Useful in large gardening collections, especially in the South.-- Sharon Levin, Univ. of Vermont Lib., Burlington

Product Details

• ISBN: 0807844187
  
• ISBN-13: 9780807844182
• Format: Paperback, 236pp
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press, The
• Pub. Date: November 1993
• Sales Rank: 65,131