Product Description

Passalongs are plants that have survived in gardens for decades by being handed from one person to another. In this lively book, the authors describe 117 such plants, giving particulars on hardiness and size and include mail-order sources, tips on plant swaps, and more. 82 color photos.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #280733 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 220 pages

From Publishers Weekly
What's a passalong plant? Something not always easily come by in garden stores, catalogues, and horticultural centers, and instead passed along by one aficionado to another, sometimes over the fence dividing lawns, beds, or yards. Declare the coauthors, "To a gardener all other gardeners are friends," and if true, this is fortunate, as Bender and Rushing, both Southerners, survey the field for passalongs in their region, and come up with stories to keep their information company: the butterfly bush, for instance, was discovered by a missionary and a reverend, and zinnias have also been known as "old maids." This compendium is designed with clarity in mind and illustrated with small but precise color photographs. Headings are cute to a fault, however, and seem to get worse as the pages turn: "Holy Satisfactory," for example, is followed by "Wherefore Art Thou Deutzia?" Also provided is advice on how to get all the passing-along begun. First serial to Countryside.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Two established authors and gardeners reintroduce plants that gardeners pass along to one another but that are hard to find in commercial outlets. While the focus is on the South, where the authors have firsthand knowledge, Northern gardeners will still find this book useful as many of the plants are hardy. Writing in a humorous, casual style, Bender and Rushing describe 117 "passalong" plants, including trees, shrubs, vines, annuals, and perennials, as well as plants that are fragrant, invasive, weird, or garish. They devote a page or two to each plant, giving history, propagation, their personal experience, and--briefly--size, hardiness, origin, light and soil needs, and mail-order sources. About every third plant has a photo, but many lesser-known plants are not illustrated. The humor ranges from heavy-handed to hilarious, as in the tongue-in-cheek chapter on kitsch as garden art. Useful in large gardening collections, especially in the South.
- Sharon Levin, Univ. of Vermont Lib., Burlington
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
The perfect marriage of two noble traditions: southern storytelling and a gardener's love for sharing plants.

American Horticulturist

Each plant in Passalong Plants is accurately described in the intimate language of front porch talk.

New York Times Book Review

This book will 'passalong' among friends faster than weeds sprout.

Fine Gardening

An entertaining and insightful ode to the fragrance, color, and history of old-fashioned plants and the people who love them.

Southern Living

Rushing and Bender are storytellers in the great Southern tradition, and expert gardeners, too.

Horticulture

Customer Reviews

Extremely Readable, Beautifully Down-to-Earth Book
I received this book for Christmas and it was my favorite gift. The moment I opened it I read it cover-to-cover--although that took quite some time. It is written by two very different, but very knowledgable authors, Steve Bender and Felder Rushing. The essays on the different plants are written by either Bender or Rushing. Rushing's essays are donw-to-earth and friendly while Bender's are downright funny at times (just read his hilarious description of why no one grows old purple phlox). Another good attribute this book possesses besides its talented authors is its frequent use of more familiar common names than hard-to-pronounce, ever-changing Latin ones. That fragrant, night-blooming vine that climbed up your grandmother's porch is not Ipomoea alba, but moonvine. And the powderpuff pink flowers that blossomed by your great aunt's white picket fence are no longer Cleome hasslerana, but spiderlegs. If you are a Southern gardener who loves those old-fashioned plants that are ripe with nostalgia, or any gardener at all for that matter, you simply have to buy this book. It combines the easy-to-understand, entertaining writing of two talented authors and those evocative plant names you grew up with.

Garden Gifts
I read this book last fall and this spring I was invited to share the many plants growing at an old mansion in my river town. What a pleasureable day in the camaraderie of friends. I don't know the names of many of the plants as the property owner picked them up (stashed in plastic bags) as she travelled the world. So now among my named and tagged plants I have The Cincinnati Lily, Alice's Rose, and Aunt Georgia's Pink Phlox among others. Passalong Plants is a fun read that will have you trading plants with everyone you meet.-Linda Fry Kenzle, author of Gathering

Must have for southern gardeners!
I LOVED this book-it is witty,funny and very informative. I never knew what type of gardener I was until I read this book.The two authors have very different styles and personalities but together they make the book mesh and come up with a great read.