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Cottage Gardening and Plant Snobbery
As editor and writer for The American Cottage Gardener magazine, Ive had
occasion to laugh over botanical ins and outs from century to century.
Painted lady pinks, which were desperately in vogue in the 17th Century,
were snubbed in favor of the the laced pinks several generations later;
when single China asters (genus Callistephus) were introduced to Western
horticulture, the mulcherati exclaimed over them, but as soon as full
doubles were introduced, the singles were discarded by those in the
know. This is why it is so important to hold on to and pass along the
seeds and cuttings of flowers we love, despite the fact that they may
not be fashionable any longer. Old forms are not always prettier or
stronger, but sometimes they are, and once lost they can be lost
forever.
Rand
Rand Lee, Horticultural Writer & Editor
President and Founder, American Dianthus Society
(http://www.nhn.uoknor.edu/%7Ehoward/ads.html)
Editor, American Cottage Gardener ( http://trine.com/GardenNet/ACG/)
http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/2903
1306 Lujan Street, Santa Fe NM 87505-3220 USA
Telephone: (505-438-7038).
Email to randbear@nets.com
Zone 5b-6a
"Who would look dangerously up at Planets [who] might
safely look downe at Plants?" --- John Gerard, 1597
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