Green Fingers

The other morning, I checked facebook before I got out of bed to start my day, like I do most mornings. A post appeared in my feed packed with questions,

“Do you have an indoor houseplant that is a family heirloom? Or a memory of such a houseplant? Maybe a story about an ancestor and houseplants?” asked Blaine Bettinger, family historian and genetic genealogist.

Well, yes, I thought. I can answer yes to all those questions. As I was replying to the facebook post, my mind was working overtime – here was a great blog prompt.

My initial answer was to share that my mother and I have cared for my grandmother’s maidenhair fern between us since 1988. I don’t know how long Nana had had it before then, but I remember there being one at her home, on the bench or sulking in the laundry tub with a bit of water if it dared to look like it was going to give up the ghost, for most of my life.

As well as the maidenhair fern, there is an orchid.

Nana had bought it at an orchid show when it was in flower because she liked the colour. After it had finished flowering, it was banished outside, behind the trellis where it was a little protected from frosts. She never saw it flower again, but I rescued it from its spot behind the trellis before her house was sold. It has been repotted a few times in the ensuing 34 years and divided up and shared with my mother, sister-in-law and a cousin. Most years, particularly the most recent, it/they have flowered profusely.

But these early morning questions stirred up lots of other memories about plants and gardening.

Vegetable gardens have always heavily featured through the generations, most likely because that is just what you did to feed your family. My attempts to have a thriving vegetable garden have been half hearted and often fallen foul of location, soil and prevailing weather. At least one of my cousins though has a pretty spectacular vege garden. I think I just didn’t get that bit of DNA.

Nana, though loved gardening. She spent a lot of her time outside tending to it, and visiting local nurseries acquiring new seedlings, trees and shrubs to try. She loved roses and often ordered from the growers when she spotted one in a catalogue or at a public garden which took her fancy. Crimson Glory, Josephine Bruce, Queen Elizabeth, Peace…There was “Love in a Mist” (Nigella) in the front garden; violets, beautifully scented dark purple ones, covered a patch beneath some trees in the back corner of the garden. She loved to share her love of gardening, and the plants with us all. I remember seedlings arriving overnight on a Road Service bus from Hamilton, rolled up with a bit of soil in damp newspaper and packed into a box for Mum to plant in our garden after we had moved. She also gave me seedlings from her garden to start my own. I did have her Debutante Camellia for some years transplanting it from her garden to mine and then to Mum and Dad’s when I moved. But when they moved house, it didn’t move again as it had become too big to transplant easily.

Mum and Dad have also been avid gardeners, often starting with bare blocks, visiting nurseries, investing in plants suited to the climate and environment, natives and those which will attract the local wildlife. Within a few short years the bare blocks are transformed, and it is hard to remember how it all started. Mum, Dad and Nana often “took cuttings” from plants they saw overhanging footpaths in the street, or nurtured seedlings to cultivate and share with friends and family.

Lots of research in garden books and many visits to local nurseries to find new varieties of trees, shrubs and ground covers. I remember Dad planting a Gunnera in a shady spot once which became huge quite quickly. It looked like giant Rhubarb – but was much pricklier and definitely not a dessert option. There was a Pepper tree as well, not great for climbing but it did host brightly coloured fat as your finger Gum Emperor caterpillars most years.

Another tree brought after it was much admired in the garden at our Dr’s surgery was always known as the Dr Broad plant. (Stachyurus Praecox). It is deciduous and has hanging catkins in the early spring. You can see it's stunning autumn display in another photo below.

Nana had a cutting of a plant from her sister which liked the shade and Mum took a cutting from that plant as well and it has been moved to a couple of other gardens over time. Always referred to as the Auntie Laura plant, turns out it is a Chatham Island Forget me Not (Myosotidium hortensia)

I have mixed success with my own plants. Often it is because of poor choices – buying something that I like but isn’t suited to the climate or the situation. Currently though, I have a healthy looking bunch of indoor plants and I am nurturing some outdoors in the hope they will attract butterflies to the garden. I don’t have anything that is a family hand me down or seedling though – the downside of living in a different country I guess.

 

My daughter had two small trees growing in pots in Wellington before we moved. They too moved – to Mum and Dad’s new home where they were liberated from the confines of their pots. “Lemmy” her lemon tree has grown and fruited year after year – so much fruit it is hard to keep up, and her Fairy Magnolia has quadrupled in size and taken charge of its space covered in petite pink flowers every year. 

Nowadays she has a thriving garden on her balcony. She knows all their latin names and takes great care of them. The neighbourhood possums have a penchant for the flower buds though so there is a constant battle there. She also has some indoor plants doing well too. Her paternal grandmother had the magic touch with African Violets. She could grow them from a leaf and had them in an assortment of pots and containers growing and flowering profusely. Seems like she has that DNA too. 

 

                                               Not mine                                                      Mine

So, do you have any plants in your garden that have come from an ancestors or family members garden? What about a houseplant that is either the original or has been propagated from an earlier heirloom plant?

Do you have green fingers? Or are they like mine, bordering on a murky khaki colour?