Passalong plants are the BEST sort of plants to have in your garden! They add both charm and magic wherever they are planted.
I started thinking about this last week when my neighbor thinned out her bed ofย Solomon’s Sealย (Polygonatum odoratum)ย and gave us several plants. I’ve been wanting to grow Solomon’s Seal for years but had not gotten around to buying and planting it.
I’m not kidding when I say John and I saw it growing in the neighborhood that very morning, admired it, and talked about adding it to our shade garden.
Voila! Just like that, a bucketful showed up on our porch.
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Maybe if you whisper your gardening desires to Mother Nature, she will make it happen?
I believe.
A common characteristic about gardenersโwe love to share plants.
We need to share plants.
If we don’t divide our perennials from time to time, they won’t bloom as well. Plants, like people, need fresh air.
So you see, I think plants have this unexpressed yearning to grow up and become passalong plants.
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How do I love passalong plants? Let me count the ways.
Passalong plants provide an obvious little thrill, because let’s be honestโwho doesn’t appreciate FREE? While some spend money on designer shoes or exotic vacations, I buy plants and seeds and the best tools I can find to care for them. Gifting me a passalong plant = money in the bank. It provides me the opportunity to buy more plants later. (Or, let’s be honest, booksโother obsession.)
But this isn’t my primary reason for loving passalong plants. Not by a long shot.
Secret Garden
Passalong plants arrive with a history, one I may never know but like to imagine.
Before the plant came to live in my garden, the plant thrived in different soil, maybe next door, maybe in a different city. Someone, years or even decades ago, planted the “mother” plant which grew to the point of needing to be thinned and shared. That means, it’s a happy, healthy specimen, one with a secret past.
Variety + Interest
A few of the passalong plants I’ve received were plants I knew little to nothing about. They’ve added variety and interest in our garden that wouldn’t otherwise be found.
A Few of Our Passalongs
Lenten Rose
I never grew Lenten Rose (hellebore) until my neighbor thinned hers out. This year, after only a few growing seasons, ours needed thinning. We’ve now passed a few plants along to a neighbor.
Iris
When we first moved to Fayetteville, my sister-in-law divided her irises and shared them with me. Hers originally came from my in-laws’ garden. Our irises have now spread like crazy, and I’ve shared them with my neighbor.
The idea that my irises originally came from Fort Smith, and that my mother-in-law, Pauline, tended them, keeps her living in our garden.
I wonder if Pauline had passalongs too?
Coneflowers + More
This year, I’ve passed along coneflowers and black-eyed susans and creeping jenny. My day lilies need dividing; soon I will have them to share.
We’ve passed along several plants that originally came to us from the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks, including aromatic aster.
Ginger
Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) happily grows in our butterfly alley (I just named it butterfly alley), and it all came from my generous neighbor. This unassuming ground cover is ideal in a woodland setting, and it has such a unique, almost hidden, blossom.
Can you see the flower in the picture below?
See it?
Monarda
Rose-Scented Monarda (Monarda didyma) is a passalong plant from my friend and gardening mentor, Gail. This variety of bee balm may be the most interesting specimen in our garden because the leaves smell exactly like roses. Gail gave me this plant last year, so this is my first spring with it. I can’t wait to see its shaggy blooms. I know the pollinators will come flocking.
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Cactus
My favorite and oldest passalong plant is a cutting from my Nana’s cactus. This plant grew from the cactus she had on her porch when I was a child. I’ve written about this cactus several times both on my blog and in Arkansas Review. So, yeah, she’s sorta famous.
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I’m sure if I walked around the garden, I would find more passalong plants to show you.
History Remembered
I like to remember the plants we’ve left behind at the places we’ve lived, and I wonder if they are still there?
To my former Dallas neighbors, if you notice chrysanthemums and/or ivy growing in the yard at Worth Street, these are passalong plants from our prior house on Lakemere. (The chrysanthemums were originally planted by Lakemere owner, Frances Pitchford.) Any cactus in the Worth Street yard, came from Nana’s cactus originally from Keiser, Arkansas.
This plant history is likely important to no one but me. Ha.
Are you a fan of passalong plants? Which plants have you been the beneficiary of and which have you passed along to others?
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
Pass along plants make up most of mine. I have a huge mahonia holly bush & wild ferns from Mississippi passed to me from momma. My old Jacobโs coat rose bush was started in Missouri at my Papaw Mullins place. I love my hostas from my neighbor Pat. Passalongs are the best!
I agree!! Thanks for sharing.
This blog is so interesting and enjoyable to me. It brings back lots of memories and makes me want to go out and thin, divide, and nurture my neglected plants which are almost all passalongs. Iris from Tomโs aunt, miniature iris from my niece, sedum from friends, bleeding hearts from my daughter, lily of the valley from a former neighbor and so many others. I have pass along hostas from all over. I dug up some wild ginger from down in our timber. Some plants grew at our house in Des Moines, went to Minnesota when our daughter moved there and then they came back when she moved again and eventually ended up in Arkansas and here at our current home. I could go on forever but Iโve already said too much. Happy gardening! ๐
I love hearing about all your passalong plants. As I read your comment I remembered I have passalong mint, day lilies and lily of the valley.
When I think of Passalongs, I think of Lona Woodard Crews. She lived on the banks of the ditch behind my house where I grew up. (Canโt spell it right now and canโt find it in my notes. Imagine that!! LOL) Anyway, , she always shared her plants. I think of her when I see the Iris blooming in my front yard here in Fayetteville. The next time we are home, we need to go look around her place. โค๏ธ
I think of her too when I think of both irises and quilts.
I need a cutting from Nanaโs cactus
I’m going to repot mine soon and will give you some.
Years ago when our daughter was a police officer she rented a house way out in the middle of 170 acres of woods that bordered the Chickahominy River. It was very isolated but had a stable and a little greenhouse made from old windows. A very elderly couple had lived there for years. The house had been built in the mid 1700s and was haunted.In another life in the 1950s it was a hunt club so there were many old things around there. I dug up some roses from there and brought them home. That was one of those old roses that was a rambler and believe me it spread everywhere growing clusters of small pink roses. I have always wondered what kind they were. I would love to share my lily of the valley with you.
Oh my gosh, what an interesting place your daughter lived. I would love a passalong from you!
I found this article and the responses so…comforting? Hmm canโt find the right word. But it did make me look around at who gave me which plants and a little wondering and sadness for what I left behind in Wyoming. My favorite from back there that I couldnโt transport w me was lungwort from my Grandmas garden. So it would have that โhistoryโ of being possibly at least 60 years old. It shouldnโt of been able to survive Wyomingโs harsh climate but I must have found the correct microclimate where it stayed contained in the tiny spot of shade we had.
I love this post. I was feeling so guilty about leaving several pass along plants from places Iโve lived. You made me realize that it was just another way to pass along plants. The one I long for most is my momโs Lillies of the Valley. Anybody know where I can get more of them? I have a perfect place for them in my yard now that Iโm in Southern MD. I never see them at nurseries, etc.