Family roots

When Ralph Sowell took a trip to south Alabama to visit his parents' childhood haunts and reconnect with relatives, he didn't realize he was going to become part of a growing group of "pass along" plant collectors.

But after he admired the plants in his aunt's yard, she sent him home with some old family favorites for his own garden.

Such old-fashioned plants have survived by being shared from one gardener to another. Their value lies in the stories that accompany them, and also in their rarity - often these plants can't be found in commercial garden centers. Commercial growers have moved on to varieties with more-compact growth habit or bigger flowers.

Of that trip, Mr. Sowell remarks wryly: "I didn't know what I was getting into, so I just started planting. I'd advise anyone doing this to get their beds ready and learn something about the plants' needs before they get home with them."

Sowell's first plant-acquisition journey was just over three years ago, and as of last month, he has transplanted more than 200 such jewels from family gardens in Andalusia, Greenville, Montgomery, and Owassa, Ala., to family gardens in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana.

In the process, he has cemented the bonds of family for four generations by documenting the history of favorite plants in stories and photographs.

Three years ago, Ralph and Gloria Sowell had a neat landscape - manicured lawn and shrubs, with crape myrtles and bold red geraniums for color. Now, the patio and every bed spill over with shade-loving plants.

Running out of room at home, he began planting new acquisitions around his buisness, where he places plants wherever the sun shines best.

The collection is loaded with old-fashioned varieties, including daffodils, daylilies, iris, gladioluses, rain lilies, salvias, lantanas, rose of Sharon, deutzia, sweet shrub, ferns, roses, and camellias.

Every one has a story, but particular prized are the jonquil bulbs. "They're at least 100 years old," Sowell says. "My aunt gave them to me, and told me they came originally from my great-grandfather's garden."

Friends get the benefit of especially prolific plants, such as a reuellia he has propagated to great effect from stem cuttings.

"They root easily, and it's not the Mexican petunia you see in the garden stores. It's much bigger, with a stronger purple bloom. I'm getting a reputation with this plant - a Johnny Appleseed spreading them through towns all around," he says with a smile.

Reuellia brittoniana, or Doorstep Flower, was a popular exotic that escaped cultivation early in the 20th century in the Southeastern US - thus its home in his aunt's garden.

The propagation of his family's plant heritage has changed Sowell's gardening habits and vacation plans but, more importantly, his entire family feels richer for the connections.

His aunts load down his car with starts of everything he expresses interest in, with growing instructions and dates for return trips at the appropriate season for more of the family horticultural treasures. The plants have spread far and wide, all delivered in the sedan's big trunk and lovingly installed by Sowell - from Baton Rouge, La., to Memphis, Tenn. No family member is safe from his shovel - or from his advice.

When Sowell stopped by his brother's house, ostensibly to drop off some beans, his brother wasn't fooled. "He knows I went by to see if he was watering the plants I gave him, and, of course, he's right."

Sowell makes fall and spring trips to Alabama, and brings home as many family stories as he does plants.

"When I get over there, I try to see as much as I can, but the time just zaps out. We stayed up till after midnight this last trip, just talking about plants!" he says.

Between trips, he circulates a newsletter full of photos and updates on both family and gardens. Sowell does what so many people dream of doing: He connects with older relatives, and ensures that the generations to follow will know about and appreciate their roots - literally as well as figuratively.

Patience often seems in short supply in the 21st century, but that's what makes Ralph Sowell's gardening odyssey successful.

"It just takes time," he says. "To grow the plants, of course, but to visit all the gardens and hear the stories about who grew what and what happened to them. I keep a journal and plant list so I'll know what worked and what didn't, and then I try to photograph most of them."

Every gardener knows that visits to gardens often lead to nearby nurseries, just because, like mountains that tempt climbers, they're there. This summer's trek found Sowell in a garden center, talking about his plants with a complete stranger, a woman who claimed she had a plant he just had to have.

"I told her thanks, but I was on my way home," he says, "and she insisted on driving the 30 miles out to her house and back to dig one up and bring it to me! It's a primrose-looking thing, and seems to be doing fine. She's had it for years, and now we have it here, too."

In the Sowell collection, there's always room for one more plant and its story.