Beware of the Passalong Plant

When I was a new (and apparently naive) gardener, I was pathetically grateful for any plants that anyone would share with me. In fact, looking at my bare beds (all that DIRT!) I was hard pressed to believe that I would ever be in a similar position to share.

But I was mistaken.

Now don't get me wrong. I am not accusing all the gardeners who so generously shared their plants with me of being part of some nefarious plot. But even as naive as I was in the ways of gardening, I should have realized that it was more than pure kindness of heart that led them to pass along these particular plants.

I'm sure, deep in their heart, what they said to themselves went along these lines. "That poor thing, with all that bare dirt to fill. It could cost a fortune at the nursery! So I'll just help her along with a bit of this _____ " (you fill in the blank).

"This ______" was nearly always a classic, passalong plant - the kind that everyone in the neighborhood has because they are constantly dividing and sharing.

And why do they share it?

Because there is so much of it. Because it grows like wildfire. Because it would take over their gardens and obliterate everything in its path if gardeners don't dig out generous hunks of it once (or twice, or five times) a year. And because they simply cannot bear to consign a perfectly good hunk of plant to the compost heap.

AND - it will give that poor, bare, new little garden a mature look in record time.

Exactly what is a passalong plant? Let me give you a hint. The book of that name, Passalong Plants by Stephen Bender and Felder Rushing (who just happens to be our Tacky Yard Art judge) lists many of the good old-fashioned plants, often no longer sold in nurseries, that are traditionally passed among neighbors and friends. Some are garden friends, like peonies and old garden roses (although if I don't keep my old garden roses whacked back severely they become a positive threat to anyone wandering in their vicinity.) But the book also lists Campsis radicans (trumpet vines), equisetum and kudzu.

Yes - kudzu. We all know about that one - the plant that races so fast that if you turn your back on it it's likely to swallow your car and garage. So it's no wonder gardeners passed it along. They had plenty to spare!

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