RESOURCES - HISTORIC PLANT MATERIALS

Image: Perle d'Or, an Old Garden Rose, in Petaluma. Photo: © Susan Chamberlin, 2013.

Gardens and cultural landscapes have many character-defining features in addition to plants and vegetation, yet plants can be some of the most difficult things to replace in a restoration or reconstruction. Their specific names might not be recorded, and nurseries today usually carry “improved” selections. For example, there are hundreds of dahlia cultivars, but the actual dahlia cultivar grown in a particular garden one hundred years ago may not be noted in surviving documents or available for purchase.

PLANT RESOURCES

• www.plantinfo.umn.edu – sources in North American nurseries for plants and seeds as well as citations in books and articles about plants. This is a free service of the University of Minnesota Libraries, which include the Anderson Horticultural Library devoted to horticulture and plant science (www.arboretum.umn.edu/library.aspx)
• www.crfg.org – members of the California Rare Fruit Growers network for each other and “Fruit Facts from their web site and journal often has information about old fruit varieties.”
• www.citrusvariety.ucr.edu – the web site of the University of California, Riverside, Citrus Variety Collection has extensive information on citrus fruits. Not a retail nursery, although they may direct you to sources.
• www.santabarbaramission.org/la-huerta - Old Mission Huerta Project (a repository and living museum for mission era heritage plants), Santa Barbara Mission Museum Director, 2201 Laguna St. Santa Barbara, CA 93105
• www.heritagerosefoundation.org - Old roses number in the thousands, and they are probably the most studied and available heirloom plants. An Internet search will turn up many cultivars. The Heritage Rose Foundation sponsors conferences and has information specific to California.
• www.monticello.org – click on “Center for Historic Plants” for Twinleaf Journal articles; Twinleaf seeds and plants are available through the Monticello Online shop.
• www.rhs.org.uk – Royal Horticultural Society (London) maintains a database of UK plant and seed sources—some ship internationally.

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