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Michelle Evans - Guest Blogger: Guest Experience Manager
Have you always wanted to own a priceless heirloom? Something handed down from generation to generation? Something full of history and stories? Come to Conner Prairie’s
Mother’s Day plant sale and you’ll find a wide selection of heirloom plants for purchase. The
Seed Savers Exchange (SSE), a non-profit organization dedicated to collecting and preserving heritage seeds from the past, estimates that over 90 percent of the fruit and vegetable varieties grown in the United States in 1900 have since been lost. Many varieties that best suited a local climate or tastes have disappeared. Fortunately, there have always been a few mavericks that saved seeds and shared them along the way. While some varieties are gone forever, many still survive, even if they'll never appear in a large commercial seed catalog.
One of those is our very own Broad Ripple Yellow Currant tomato. You may have sampled this in the garden nearest the Conner house. First found growing as a 'weed' in a crack in the sidewalk near 56th and College, this small, yellow tomato is a favorite at our
Country Fair tomato tasting. We'll have a total of 20 tomato varieties available but the favorites go quickly so shop early! We’ll have red, yellow, purple and green tomatoes. We’ll even have a tomato that looks like a peach!
We’ll also 11 different varieties of scented geraniums, known for their fragrant leaves rather than their flowers. These old varieties were used for teas or potpourris. And speaking of teas, we’ve got over a dozen herbs available, including fennel. If you visited the Gregory garden in Prairietown, you may have noticed the Swallowtail butterflies that were drawn to the fennel.
The plant sale will be Mother’s Day weekend, during regular open hours. Look for the signs to the right of the main entrance. We’ll be glad to share more of the stories with you!