Where did the term “Heirloom” plants begin?
The term “Heirloom” applied to plants was apparently first used by Kent Whealy of Seed Savers Exchange, who first used “heirloom” in relation to plants in a speech he gave in Tucson in 1981. He had asked permission to use the term “heirloom” from John Withee, who had used the term on the cover of his bean catalog. John said sure, that he had taken it from Prof. William Hepler at the University of New Hampshire, who first used the term “heirloom” to describe some beans that friends had given him back in the 1940s.
Tom Corrow on 21 Sep 2011 at 8:47 pm #
I read the comment about the origination of the term ‘heirloom’ with interest. I wonder if the person who coined the term was J. Raymond Hepler, a former professor at The University of New Hampshire, not William Hepler as cited. I remember going to Prof Hepler’s experimental gardens on land that he owned in Madbury, NH as a small child. He was a great friend and mentor to my dad, Henry ‘Hank’ Corrow who was Ag editor at UNH from 1953 to his death in 1986. The family story that I’ve heard many times is that William Hepler named an onion after my dad when he operated the Billy Hepler Seed Company sometime in the late fifties. As a young child I have a slightly hazy memory of some of the details.
Tom Corrow
Lee NH