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Like tomatoes, many plants exist in heirlooms. Grow living antiques


That’s how Lynn Coulter describes heirloom seeds in her book, Gardening with Heirloom Seeds. Heirloom varieties are gaining in popularity, and today


“L 60 • Fall 2016


it is common to find at least a few heirloom varieties listed in almost every seed catalogue. But what exactly does it mean when we see the descriptor; “heirloom variety”? There isn’t a precise definition but most gardeners


define heirloom seeds as varieties that have been around for at least 50 years, explains Coulter. “Although some would set the bar at 100 years,” she adds. Others would include any plant with a special history such as the pepper seeds, Grandpa, brought from the “old country” only 40 years ago.


iving antiques, handed down from one gener- ation to another…an inheritance of flavour or beauty from long ago, and often far away.”


By Helen Lammers-Helps You will also see the term heritage seed. Heirloom


and heritage are used synonymously in seed catalogues, explains Bob Wildfong, executive director of Seeds of Diversity, a Canadian non-profit organization with a mission to preserve the genetic seed bank. There are many reasons for this growing interest in


heirloom plants. For starters, many old-fashioned fruits and vegetables are more flavourful, says Coulter. For example, with tomatoes, plant breeders have focused their efforts on developing tomatoes that ship well with- out bruising and last a long time on store shelves. Unfor- tunately, they lost some of their flavour through all the genetic tinkering, she explains. As another example, modern flowers often have less


scent than their ancestors. “Bury your nose in a bouquet of modern sweet peas or hybrid roses and you’ll find their


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