HEIRLOOM PLANTS

Dorothy Hickam grows various plants genetically propagated from her great grandmother Aeker's plant. The plant will be replanted at various spots around the historic Abraham Byrd plantation stone house where her grandmother lived.

Hickam grows the apothecary rose, which was once used by traveling apothecaries who used it in syrups, candies and medicinal purposes.

When Dorothy Hickam tends the gardens in the shadow of the stone house that was once her grandparents' home, she sees more than hearty greenery and striking blooms.

The diverse and thriving plant life she cares for is living history. Most of the plants she grows, whether vegetables, flowers or herbs, are from seeds or cuttings passed through many generations. Many of the plants have histories within her own family, and most are heirloom, or antique, varieties.

An heirloom, or antique, variety is expected to be at least 50 years old, Hickam explained.

"I'm interested in the heirloom quality of various things, whether it's ornamental or vegetable garden type plants," she said. "I am particularly interested in restoring some of the plants that used to grow here."

With the keystone date of 1827, the solid, two-story home is a silent reminder of all that has been, and for Hickam, all that is yet to be.

She and her two brothers, Jim and Jon, want to restore the old home built by a Virginian named Abraham Byrd and acquired years later by relatives on Dorothy Hickam's mother's side of the family. And, for Hickam, that also means restoring the gardens that were such an important part of her youth.

An avid member of Seed Savers Exchange, an Iowa-based organization devoted to saving old-time food crops from extinction, she has reintroduced to the homestead plants that once grew there. Plus, she has introduced many other forms of plant life consistent with the home's era. Individual gardens, each with their own emphasis, dot the homeplace a few miles outside of Jackson.

Broadleaf English sage growing in an herb patch near the house is just one of the plants with special significance for Hickam. Vegetatively propagated, the plant is essentially the same sage that one of her great-grandmothers tended on a Bollinger County farm. It dates to at least 1850.

"I can't look at it, or touch it, without thinking about great-grandma," Hickam said. "She loved it and treasured it. I've got a connection to her that way."

Keeping the plant life that family, friends and neighbors have loved is a valuable and easy thing to do, Hickam contends. After all, if interest isn't taken, she queried, "What becomes of all of this that people cared so much for?" The more hands that heirloom plants are in, the better off they are.

Hickam has made many vegetable and ornamental heirlooms available worldwide through Seed Savers Exchange and other means. She is also a member of the Missouri Native Plant Society and involved in the Master Gardener program administered by the University of Missouri Extension.

Dressed in jeans, boots and a blue Seed Savers Exchange T-shirt, Hickam pointed out young versions of Aunt Lola's Provider Pole Beans, a variety dating to 1923.

"There's always been a Provider Bush Bean, but this is the only Provider Pole Bean I have ever heard of," said Hickam, who first offered the variety through the Exchange a few years back.

Hickam's Aunt Lola grew the Provider Pole Beans every year as long as she made garden. "And, she made garden a lot of years," Hickam said, chuckling.

With the pole bean and many other vegetable varieties, Hickam carries on the tradition of carefully selecting seeds for certain qualities.

"Gardeners in the farm areas will save the seed from the best and eat the worst," Hickam explained. "That's just what you do because you want that for your seed stock."

The old varieties tend to be reliable and tough, Hickam said, adding: "The old stuff has more definite flavor."

Interest is growing in old varieties of garden and ornamental plants, with seed catalogs often offering heirloom varieties. Plus, there are many publications devoted to antique plants.

Near a babbling spring, on a plot of land that holds at least 17 kinds of unusual rose varieties, Hickam sniffed the rich scent of a full bloom.

"Oh, my, it's so sweet smelling," she said. The plot is not a rose garden. It's a place for the roses to grow until they're moved to spots where they might have stood when the house was bustling with inhabitants.

Her interest in roses was sparked several years ago. "I was looking for a rose my mom knew when she was a kid," she said.

All but one type of rose in Hickam's collection are very old varieties, dating from pre-1500 through the 1800s.

Nearby sprawls a plant called Apothecary's Rose. A teacher of social studies for several years, Hickam surmises the lovely blooms would have made effective visual aides in the classroom. Some believe the Apothecary Rose is the original red rose of Lancaster and thus associated with England's War of the Roses, she explained.

"To think that some old crusader that I've talked about may have hauled that rascal home with him is very intriguing," she said.

At the right of the Apothecary Rose blooms a Rosa Mundi, the world's oldest stripped rose. The variety dates to at least 1581. Nearby, dozens of Madam Isaac Pereire blooms are examples of the traditional, quartered, old-rose form, Hickam explained.

Hickam's connections with the old home place and with old plants run deep. "There's not one square inch of soil here that my granddad or grandma did not step on," she said. "I was raised to appreciate the older folks, listen to stories, have respect for age and wisdom."

Though her immediate family moved quite a bit while she was a child, "We always came home, and this was always home," Hickam said. "It was always the central focus, the central point to gravitate back to that told you who you were and where you came from."

For Hickam, keeping the genetic treasures flourishing is as natural as those family ties.