Gardeners help preserve the legacy of heirloom plants

Our gardens would be much poorer today if it were not for the thousands of vegetable and flower varieties that gardeners have saved from extinction over the past three decades. These old-time plants have qualities of flavor, fragrance and adaptability too often lacking in the latest hybrids.
So where do you find these oldies but goodies? In "Heirloom Plants," a special issue newsletter. The Avant Gardener lists many sources of heirloom plants, plus seed-saving organizations that are supplying endangered edible and ornamental plants. They also discuss how to find heirlooms and save and distribute seed.
Today gardeners may choose simply to grow some heirlooms and enjoy recounting their histories, or to specialize in one kind of plant. They may re-create period gardens or opt to grow the plants known to their ancestors in "the old country." Saving heirlooms is, as one gardener says, a supremely happy duty.
Says the newsletter, to lose or deliberately throw away something valuable from the past is foolish, and what is lost may be irreplaceable.
The word "new" has great allure, for it seems to promise something better. In the case of plants, a new introduction is usually superior in one or several respects to earlier forms.
However, achieving bigger flowers, higher yields or improved disease resistance has too often meant sacrificing other qualities such as flavor, fragrance or regional adaptability.
This year the Seed Savers Exchange (3094 North Winn Road, Decorah, IA 52101; (563) 382-5990; www.seedsavers.org) published its 32nd "Seed Savers Yearbook." In this 462-page volume, 756 of the SSE members offered 12,284 unique varieties.
Founded by Kent Whealy, the Seed Savers Exchange - which now includes a Flower and Herb Exchange - maintains huge seed collections at its Heritage farms, six miles north of Decorah.
This rich repository of 25,000 heirloom varieties, many supplied by gardeners all over the world, is stored in refrigerated vaults and each year 10 percent of each crop is grown on a 10-year rotation.
Last year some 36,000 gardeners purchased seed of 600 select heirlooms now offered in the SSE catalog.
There are many other organizations listed, dedicated to conservation of heirloom plants. A very new one is RAFT - Renewing America's Food Traditions - a consortium of seven food and farm groups.
RAFT has produced a list of America's endangered foods, which includes more than 700 varieties.
This year it has started an Heirloom Seed Adoption Program, which will produce seed kits to be distributed to farmers all across the country.
All these organizations have resurrected thousands of heirloom, heritage, antique and pass-along plants that had become extinct in commerce.
Gardeners have rallied round them to revive the Brandywine and Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter tomatoes, Jacob's Cattle bean, German Butterball potato, Collective Farm Woman melon and a host of others prized in the past and valuable for the future.
You can obtain a copy of the "Heirloom Plants" newsletter for $3 postpaid from The Avant Gardener, P.O. Box 489, New York, N.Y. 10028. A free sample of the regular issue will be sent with each order.
Helen Bale can be reached at htbale@infostations.com.