How To Get Heirlooms

By Cherie Langlois A Taste of Yesterday Heirloom varieties have their own unique histories. By Cheryl Morrison Blooming Heirlooms Vegetables aren't the only plants with colorful pasts—think of heirloom flowers to add a bit of history and fragrance to...

The skin is a soft yellow with pink streaking, and when cut open, the flesh is pink and yellow streaked. The flavor has a little zing and the juicy green flesh is just beautiful when made into fresh salsa or green gazpacho.

The upright plant is excellent for container planting. Fruit makes a great slicing tomato. Box Car Willie , named for the King of the Hoboes, offers a smooth red color with bright orange undertones.

I grew 12 different tomato plants and separated them into four groups of three plants. My hope is that I'll have excellent yields and beautiful, disease-resistant foliage. Here's hoping! Tags Dirt On Gardening , fertilizers , tomatoes

I want to share this miracle with you. My mom reached out to me across the Rainbow Bridge with a special rose to help me through the worst time of my life. Mom would inhale the rose's scent as she brought it into the house, saying how much she loved the...

He and the other authors are calling for a concerted global effort to catalog the plant varieties in these repositories and the genetic traits that they exhibit. Corn, wheat, rice and other modern cereals have been bred over the past centuries to produce...

The skin is very hard, making it a long-lasting storage pumpkin, too. The flesh is dry and smooth with a nice fragrance. They have good resistance to vine borers and drought. Regardless of their official familial lines, boutique pumpkins have a one-up...

My friend Rozanna who is known in some circles as "The queen of Noisettes" (I am just the princess) wanted a red Noisette, so she imported from France a rose that was described as being red.

Home gardeners were perpetuating and improving vegetable varieties through seed selection long before there were commercial seed producers. If you're saving multiple varieties, be sure to label the filters.Once the seeds are thoroughly dry, place them...

Unfortunately, more tomato hybrids are invading the markets and the grocery stores, leaving less space for the home tomato growers.Years ago, farmers were the only source of tomatoes in the markets during summer.

“Cosmic Purple is amazing for color and flavor,” says John “Farmer John” Fendley, founder of the Sustainable Seed Company. Hollow Crown Parsnips The Lowes like this parsnip variety best for its compact size, larger crown and, if left undisturbed,...

For long term storage of harvested beets, remove the greens and pack the roots into wooden crates of slightly damp sand. I love to use it in stir-fries because it doesn't bleed like regular red beets, and its flavor is very mild and lacks the dirty aftertaste...

Their No. 1 selling tomato in 2006 was Cherokee Purple. Plants should be introduced to progressively longer periods of sun and wind over 7 to 10 days so that they will thrive once they are transplanted outside.

Named by the Carmelite monks who first grew this luscious fruit, it's at its succulent best at the Feast of St. Madeleine in France and mid- to late July in North America. Pliny the Elder was the first of the ancients to write about alcoholic beverages...

They have the best winter hardiness, next to roses species that are indigenous to cold climates. Press or strain the mixture through a sieve to remove any seeds and to reduce large chunks of hips.

'Vates' is acclaimed for its tolerance to both heat and cold.Beira' is also available but, while much more cabbage-like, it is not nearly as cold-tolerant as either cabbage or other kales.

They are not going to putter out, die out, or just up and give up on life one day. They can be found growing with little care; granted they do much better with care. You know when you get a historical iris that is has passed the test of time in blooming.

He never left the house without a hat on his head and never missed a day of work. In those days that would have cost him under fifty cents and with the lunch my mother packed for him and the cost of the subway his daily spending might have totaled one...

He's collected the stories and biographies into this great little book to preserve the ‘how and why' behind some of our beloved seeds and plants. Hill people are independent, self-reliant and like tradition.

This is more work, obviously, but a really good way to get a fair amount of seed from heirloom plants. These will keep the sunlight out and provide a dry storage for seeds.Leftover vegetable seed, if less than two years old, can also be brought in to...

Gardeners love books, as the number of titles devoted to the subject attest. It is obviously a labor of love for the author and her colorful descriptions make for good reading on a winter day.

This iris is a well-known show stopper in the garden, only getting bigger and better each year.- A wonderful pink iris with ruffled edges and stunning falls. This is the iris to place in mass plantings to bring back the gentle comforts of yesteryear.Try...

They are considered easy to grow but a bit difficult to start from seed. The Medlar is a small, deciduous tree of about 20 feet in height and width with a broad crown and heavy foliage.

We also watch where the moon is in context to the other constellations. They knew that some days were better for planting root crops, while others were best for cutting back invasive shrubs.

And while we often feel winter is the cruelest season, summer too can be stressful on plants. The degree of cold that particular plants can survive does vary. It's a rare gardener whohave Mom's daylilies or Grandma's peonies, for example.There are entire...

There is another tale that illustrates this point perfectly.Like Priscilla in my previous article, Mrs. What is it about the hollyhock that can evoke such sentimentality and emotion?

Beware of squash vine borers and squash bugs! When harvesting, check the plants daily to gather small fruit.needs little to no added water when cooking, and can be roasted or grilled.Choices abound in the pepper category.