Plant Swapping
My neighbors across the road, every year now, put iris bulbs out on the highway with a sign that says FREE. Cars stop, trunks fly open and another load of plants migrates south. Over a hundred varieties of irises they brought from Oklahoma are taking over the South End, iris capital of the world.
This is a new twist on an old country tradition — passing plants to the neighbors. Look around and you’ll see our quince bush is about the age of the Nesje’s up the road. There are 3 sequoias in the neighborhood, all about the same height and age. Our mock orange is showing up from here to Tyee.
A cutting here, a few bulbs there, a piece of honeysuckle vine, a funny vegetable like our Jerusalem artichoke, some plants that make a jail break on their own like our comfrey, trees like my neighbor’s chestnuts that pop up everywhere or our filberts the blue jays plant for us and everybody else —- the plants get spread around.
The mizzus is a horticulturist. Me, I’m more of a hortichuckle-ist. I used to find plants back in the hollows, at old homesteads, by hidden ponds and muddy creek sides. I got one, a 7 foot tall monster wild orchid, a Jumpin Jimmy that spreads by spitting its seeds out of a pod. We’d find em on the roof, up in the gutter where the mulch is about a foot deep, nearly everywhere but in the house…at least for now.
You got to be careful, I guess. I suppose it won’t be long before the moralists take a swing at this. Plant swapping. It isn’t natural. It isn’t right. Ought to nip it in the bud. Stick to the native plants. Live on stinging nettle soup and quit importing foreign vegetables. Send those potatoes back to Ireland and those artichokes back to Israel where they belong….
Personally – and don’t tell Ma I said this – I’m all FOR plant swapping. Seems neighborly somehow. And saves me from those collecting trips back in the jungle and swamps now that the Jumpin Jimmies have taken over everything in sight.
Hits: 33