by Susan Klatz Beal

Created on: January 30, 2009

Almost ever gardener recognizes the flower names 'Love-Lies-Bleeding' or 'Kiss-Me-Over-The-Garden-Gate' as familiar and much loved annuals. Those are examples of heirloom flowers. Many of the annual flowers that gardeners regularly plant in their gardens are considered heirloom flowers. This is also the case with some perennials.

There are different ways to make the designation. Jewelry is termed an antique if it is 50 year old or older. Likewise, if the time line of when a flower or vegetable was first introduced proves that it was more than fifty years ago, that would mean that the flower or vegetable would get the designation.

Some people hold that the determining factor should be that the vegetable or flower seeds were harvested from the same plants and with each generation, the seeds were handed down to the next. Whether or not a gardener realizes it, many of the annual or perennial flowers and vegetables that they regularly plant are old time standards, and according to the fifty year theory, they would deserve the heirloom designation.

Advances in technology have made it possible through genetic engineering, for scientists to create more disease resistant varieties of vegetables. By taking that technology a step or two further, scientists have engineered ways to produce vegetables that can be harvested long before they are ripe so that by the time they arrive at their intended destination on the grocery store shelves, the consumer thinks they are getting fully ripened produce.

The hallmark of heirloom seeds, whether for vegetables, fruits or flowers is that the plants are allowed to pollinate openly. There is no attempt to prevent nature from doing what is natural. No one manipulates the pollination process in such a way that a hybrid version of something is created. There is no treatment or genetic engineering involved in processing heirloom seeds so they are as pure as they can be.

There is a lot to be said for making an earnest effort to grow flowers and vegetables from heirloom seeds. By harvesting your own seeds, whether from your flowers or from your vegetables, if you are an organic gardener, you will always know that the seeds you plant in subsequent years will be organic. You will never have to question anything about the growing practices or the company whose seeds you purchase.

When anything, whether vegetable or flower, is grown in an atmosphere where open pollination is allowed to happen, any hybridization that occurs in subsequent plantings or

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>