Greetings All: I did not know what category to put this thread under, but yesterday I had a meeting with the executive director and the head gardener for the Botanical Garden of the Coastal Plain which is part of Georgia Southern University. The garden was originally an old farm with a camellia collection in the front yard under a grove of magnolia and American holy trees. The farm which was located next to the university was willed to the university under the condition that the farm house and camellia collection was preserved. The university has since converted the whole thing to a botanical garden. They have since added a native plat garden, and native rhododendron garden, and a vegetable garden and sugarcane patch.
The original horse stable has been preserved and is very much part of the display. A historic one room school house has been moved to an old agricultural field behind the horse stable. Now the next component being planned for the botanical garden is to plant a fruit orchard in the agricultural field between the school house and orchard.
They invited me in to ask my advice about what they should do for an orchard. I suggested two things which they really liked. One is an exhibit of heirloom pear tree varieties that either were available to Georgia farmers 50+ years ago and varieties where the original mother tree was originally found growing at a farm or home site in the deep south. In the display, historical plaques telling the history of each variety would be part of the exhibit.
The second idea they liked was the idea of creating a collection of Chickasaw plum varieties that were developed and handed down by farmers in the Deep South. A lot of these strains of Chickasaws were never commercially available, so developing this collection will involved finding private people who have had a good strain of Chickasaw plum handed down to them and adding a root sucker to the collection. An important part of the exhibit when it can be accomplished will be to have a plaque explaining the history of the plum or at least some information of where it originated.
Part of the future goal will be for the garden to be a future source of scion wood or live plants for home gardeners and heirloom fruit collectors in the deep south. We discussed the possibility of developing educational programs about growing fruit which will better connect the garden to the education mission of the university.
I’m sure there will be interest in adding other fruit trees, especially heat and humidity hearty heirloom varieties with a historical connection to the deep south, especially Georgia. The garden has asked me to help with this project and to especially help them track down and evaluate possible entries into their orchard collection.
I’m sure that the next steps in the process of developing an heirloom and historic southern fruit collection will be fundraising and developing relationships with heirloom fruit collectors and fruit grower organizations. I’m also sure that there will be lots of opportunities for members of this online community to help with this project.
