Round Robin: Gifts of Herbs

Feeling gifted

Newberg, Oregon—This Christmas, I’ll be satisfied with new socks and underwear. I’ve already had so many herbal gifts. Besides the new book on salvias I bought myself, gardening friends have given me two herbs from England that I had only read about: Rosmarinus ‘Silver Spires’ and Hesperis matronalis ‘Alba Plena’.

The first is a silver-variegated rosemary that the herbalist John Gerard wrote about in the sixteenth century. It was lost to cultivation until someone in England noticed a rosemary sport with the same silver variegation that Gerard had described in his Herball. After years of propagation to build up stock, the plant was recently made available to the public.

The second herb is the rare double white-flowered dame’s-rocket, which was a common bedding plant in Victorian times, as popular as today’s marigolds. It was also lost to cultivation until a tiny start with a viral infection was found in Ireland. Through tissue culture, breeders were able to get rid of the virus and slowly introduce the plant back to the trade. (Two double purple-flowered forms have yet to be rediscovered.)

I was given the double white in the hope that I could propagate it and distribute it locally, thus ensuring its survival. I was honored to be the recipient, but I also felt a tremendous responsibility: what if I killed it? My gardening friend Glen, who had given me the plant, absolved me of any future guilt by saying, “It’s only a plant. It can be replaced.” Whew!

Most references I checked recommended simple division as the most successful method of propagation, but I was afraid that if I did that and goofed, it would mean the end of the plant. I decided to take cuttings, selecting one of the two flower stalks to cut off. Even though I knew that the flowers are sterile and cannot produce seeds even if they want to, I couldn’t help wincing as the beautiful, foot-long spike of fragrant white flowers lay in my hand.