Can someone give me a definition of an heirloom garden? Nothing complicated, we just need to know how to explain to some who may not be familiar with it. I thought I would ask the experts first.

Thanks,

Janie

Heirloom Seeds are OLD. Exactly how old a seed variety must be to earn the classification of heirloom is highly debated. Most gardeners agree that Heirloom varieties should be at least 50 years old. Some say the seed must be 100 years old, while others use the year 1945 (the end of World War II) as the marking point (1945 was also the beginning of the widespread use of hybrid commercial seed varieties). Commercially marketed, hybrid seeds gained great popularity in the 1970s.
Many Heirloom varieties are 100-150 years old and some are much older. For example, some varieties date back to traditional pre-Colombian, Native American crops. Others originated in old European, African and Asian crops. Part of the joy in planting these seeds is discovering the stories within them. For many, the historical stories told by the Heirloom seeds is as much a reason to cherish them as their varieties of color and flavor.

Heirloom plants are High in Quality and Highly Quirky. Many gardeners are drawn to Heirloom seeds for one simple quality: Flavor. Heirloom plants taste the way we imagine our fruits and vegetables, in a perfect world, should taste. Heirloom plants taste wonderful, look beautiful and (in most cases) are easy to grow. Heirlooms are also more "quirky" than their predictable hybrid counterparts. Heirloom seeds may be slow to germinate, they may show up after you've given up on them or they might straggle in erratically. Some varieties have "strange" qualities and growing habits that must be learned and appreciated through experience.

Heirloom plants, vegetables, herbs or flowers are also referred to "cultivars". A cultivar is an assemblage of plants that have been selected for a particular attribute or combination of attributes, and that is clearly distinct, uniform and stable in those characteristics. Cultivars, when propagated by appropriate means, retains those characteristics.

Webster's dictionary defines "Heirloom" as: "A valued family possession handed on from generation to generation". Perhaps, this is this best definition of all?

Technically, an heirloom is an older variety that originated from a non-commercial source... but the lines get blurry. Some commercial varieties from other countries get brought here as "heirlooms", and some varieties that began as heirlooms here go commercial. Witness the current commercial success of "Brandywine" or "Amish Paste" tomatoes, for example.

There is also the question of what becomes of all the once-popular OP commercial varieties, now that they have been largely abandoned by the seed trade. Some were pushed out by hybrids, but that is not the only reason for being dropped. Some were replaced by varieties more suited to mechanical harvest, and others just fell out of favor as our culture changed. Not many people feel the need to grow soup peas, for example, or cabbages for winter storage. A lot of beans & peas - which are all open pollinated - have disappeared from seed catalogs.

Unless these varieties have been picked up by the USDA for preservation, their only hope to avoid extinction is for gardeners to take an interest in them & share seeds. Once an open-pollinated variety (vegetable or otherwise) has become commercially extinct, I believe it should be treated as an heirloom.

If the focus of a garden is historical recreation, then the strict definition of "Heirloom" would be the older, non-commercial varieties. But for those gardeners who seek the self-sufficiency & variety of open-pollinated vegetables, the looser definition of heirloom - as any non-commercial OP variety - might be more appropriate. Just look for seeds no one has ever heard of. ;-)