Previously in the forum it has been suggested that Margery Fish, Reginald Farrer or Vita Sackville-West may have been the originator of the phrase about giving a plant away being the best way to keep it. I suspect the phrase will have arisen from a paraphrase of biblical advice.
In an IGPS newsletter of 2003, I found this, with a delightful poem
"THOSE PRECIOUS RARITIES
In echo of the quotation regularly attributed to Mrs. Phyllis Moore, formerly of the
Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, – the best way to keep a plant is to give it away - Ann
Hooper, of the same group quotes George Yeld:
Hast thou plants in plenty say
Of a species rich and rare
Don’t forget to give away
Those thine affluence can spare
And should any evil chance
Your garden of its pets bereave
You are no slave of circumstance
A thought will bid you cease to grieve
For it you gave, you will be given
The plant you lost and you’ll perceive
It is the rule of Heaven
That he who giveth shall receive.
George Yeld (1845–1938) was a schoolmaster, climber, explorer and hybridiser of daylilies and irises.
