An Email Discussion Group
Moderated by Scott Kunst, Old House Gardens
Here’s a description of our group and how it works, along with simple instructions for how to join.
HeirloomFlowers is a world-wide discussion group for scholars, collectors, and gardeners with a passionate interest in historic ornamentals. We welcome discussion of all historic ornamentals — trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, annuals, bulbs, and indoor plants — and their history, documentation, identification, current sources, cultivation, and preservation.
HeirloomFlowers is NOT a chat room and not a bulletin board or forum. Members post messages at any convenient time to one common address and these are automatically sent to all members. You can either simply read these messages when they appear in your in-box (or skip or delete them, of course), or if you feel like it and have the time, you can write a message in response at your convenience and send it to the same common address for automatic posting to the whole group.
Let’s face it, there aren’t many people who you can talk to for more than a minute or two about, say, the history of boxwood in American gardens — and even fewer who can answer your questions about something like that with both expertise and enthusiasm. That’s why we have HeirloomFlowers. It’s the place where, when you ask “What did 18th-century hyacinths really look like?” they don’t look at you strangely but invite you in for a long talk by the fireplace.
Joining is free, and if you decide later you’re not interested it’s easy to unsubscribe. To get started, email me at charlie@oldhousegardens.com (Charlie is our cat, but we use his name for our public email address here) and include a brief introduction I can post to the group telling us a bit about who you are, where you live and garden, your interest and work with historic ornamentals, and what you hope to gain from and bring to the group. As the Moderator of HF, I’ll then ask YahooGroups to send you an invitation to join. Then all you have to do is follow the simple YahooGroups enrollment instructions and you’ll be in.
Participants include:
Wesley Greene of Colonial Williamsburg,
Denise Adams, author of Restoring American Gardens,
Lucy Tolmach of Filoli, Woodside, CA,
Art Tucker of Delaware State University,
Marlea Graham of the Heritage Roses Group,
Pam Ruch of Historic Morven, Princeton, NY,
Peggy Cornett of Monticello,
Greg Grant of Stephen F. Austin University,
Bill Finch of the Mobile Register,
and others for a total of almost 70 members.
We’ve been sharing ideas, questions, sources, documentation, and all sorts of good stuff since January 2000. If this sounds good to you, I hope you’ll join us!
Scott Kunst, Old House Gardens
