Going Home … for an Heirloom
Flowering Pomegranate blossom from the Home PlaceThough I was born and have lived most of my life in North Carolina, I did live for a brief time across the state line in Virginia. When I was only two, my mom got the news that her mother was terminally ill, so my parents packed up and eventually we moved to my mother’s “home place” to help take care of my grandmother and to help my granddaddy with the farm. Since my grandmother died before I was three years old, I only have faint recollections of her and, so, I have always hungered for any links to or stories about her.
Among the things I know about her are that she was a great, Southern cook and she also loved to grow flowers and plants like I do. One of her prized plants was an old Flowering Pomegranate bush. If you aren’t familiar with it (I have only seen a few others in my fifty-some odd years), its woody branches have waxy leaves and it also has small buds that pop open into orange flowers that resemble small carnations. When it is in full bloom, it looks like a Christmas tree adorned with beautiful sunset orange buds and blooms. As the story goes, when my grandmother was visiting some friends in Newport News, she got a cutting from a bush there and brought it back to the farm and rooted it. Over the years her beautiful bush has been threatened on several occasions but it has always survived.
Actually, it has more than survived. When I was in Virginia with my parents last weekend, we rode by the old home place and there my grandmother’s bush stood in all its glory. It was ablaze with color and just as beautiful as I remembered. I don’t know what it is about a plant with a story, but I am often enchanted by both.
My mother’s home place belongs to her sister’s children now and as luck would have it, one of them was “home” and he and his (beautiful) fiancée were working in their organic garden. We chatted and caught up a little bit and I asked if I could get some cuttings from the old Pomegranate bush. They invited me to help myself and so I did. I clipped some blossoms to take home and enjoy over the next few days and I clipped 13 sprigs of new growth to try to root. I haven’t been as excited about cultivating some new plants in a long time. After keeping my cuttings in water for several days, today I took them outside and potted them. I used some rooting hormone to increase the likelihood that new roots will sprout from my heirloom cuttings. Now, I will keep them moist and in a shady spot for the next few weeks. In a month or a little more, I hope to see the evidence that my cuttings are taking root. At the moment, I feel like an expectant parent anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new baby (actually maybe 13 babies).
My Grandmother’s Flowering Pomegranate BushI greatly enjoyed the visit with my cousin and his fiancée, as well as his sister and her three precious little girls. There’s just always something very special about going home … returning to your “roots,” reconnecting with your kin, and remembering the folks and the times gone by. I was grateful for the chance to soak up a little of it all. Now if my cuttings will just root, I can pass along a little of the past to my mother, my sister and her daughter, and my daughter and her children … hopefully new plants that are a piece of the prolific bush my grandmother started so many years ago along with the story about her and how they came to be. I am so pleased to remember the past and to bring it with us into the future … what a beautiful heirloom!
Have any special plants that you have gotten from friends or family members? I’d love to hear about them and perhaps to get a sprout or a cutting if you are willing to share. My favorite plants are the ones that are passed along from family member to family member or from friend to friend … we know them as “pass-along” plants and they all carry a story with them 🙂
From my garden to yours,
Carolina Carol
- Posted in: Culture ♦ family ♦ History ♦ Nature ♦ Uncategorized
- Tagged: Flowering Pomegranate, gardening, heirloom, home, plants
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Beautiful Carol!
Thanks for taking the time to read my lastest post Beverly. Appreciate your comment. Hope things are well with you. Do keep in touch 🙂
We were all very happy to see you too!! I hope the 13 babies make it! Despite the heat, the hydrangea I have that came from mama’s is starting to fill out nicely this week:) I look forward to seeing your yard filled with grandma Alma’s bushes. Thanks for letting me know about this post. Love you all!! Millie
It was good to see you and the girls. Boy … they sure are growing up fast. Loved having a few minutes to visit with all of you. Keeping my fingers crossed on the baby Pomegranate bushes. Will let you know how they do 🙂
Growing connections with people and the past! beautiful siory…..
Ah … beautiful assessment Jim. Thanks for your thoughtful comment. Look forward to seeing you soon 🙂
Beautiful story Carol,
We had a thriving Pomegranate bush in our yard when we lived in Del Reo. If it could live there (with seven years of drought) you shouldn’t have any problem. Along with the beautiful blossums and aroma that fills the air, the next question you might want to think about is when the 13 babies grow up and start producing pomegranates, what do you do with them? We never could figure that out. They sell them in the grocery store – but what do you do with them. Pomegranate pie! Pomegranate jelly! Pomegranate ice cream!
Knowing you, you’ll find out. Let me know.
I would have loved to have seen your Pomegranate bush in Del Rio. Hear you are eating from your garden these days. Know that you are enjoying the whole process (from ground to table). Hope to get there to see it before too long. Take good care and do keep in touch~ From one passionate gardener to another, Carolina Carol
Carol, Great story. I think I may have seen a pomegrante bush when I toured Calhoun Mansion in Charleston, SC last year, but I am not sure.
This is my plant story. I don’t know if the plant is special but it is pretty special to our family. I have a red rose bush in my front yard that has been in our family for about 40 years or so. As rose bushes go, I have no idea of life expectancy. And I don’t how old it was when my brother (Freddie) got it from a family friend and planted it in my mother’s front yard. When we moved my mother to her new house, my brother re-planted it in her new front yard. My mother has been gone for 12 years and I now live in her house. Though we all love the old rose bush, we have sort of taken it for granted. We expect it to bloom each year without much coaxing and it does not dissappoint. It’s first blooms this year were so prolific that I used it’s image on my home-made Mother’s Day Cards. It blooms about 4 times per year and it blooms in bunches. You have peaked my interest, so I will try to find out what kind of rose bush it is.
Happy to hear about your “family heirloom” rose bush. I love the story of your connection to the bush and its offer annual offerings, to your siblings and to your mother. What a great legacy. Would love to see it sometime. I trust that it will continue to bless you all with prolific blooms for many years to come 🙂
Hi Carol,
I just found your blog! Loved it! I’m looking forward to your next entry. You are a BUSY woman!!
I’m intrigued with the square gardening course. Sounds just my speed!
Talk soon…..Meg
Glad that you found my blog. I haven’t had much time to make entries over the last few months but now that we are getting settled into the house, I hope to get back to it soon. Would love for you to come to our Square Foot Gardening Course. Would also love for you to share the info with your “gardening network.” Hope to chat more soon 🙂