The Mistress of Master Gardener Propagation: Peggy Corum

 

I first submitted this tribute to Peggy Corum for publication in the Garden Beet in May of 2020.  Peggy passed away this past spring, 2024.

 

“I was born (89 years ago) of farming Nebraskans in a small town, at a wide place in the road, in a corner of Missouri.” Flags were always waving on Peggy Corum’s birthday, and it was years before she knew that the date – Nov. 11 – was Armistice Day (later Veteran’s Day).

“Everyone in my family was plant orientated,” she declares. “I pestered the little old lady next door, so she gave 4-year-old-me butterbean seeds. I planted them and that’s how I probably helped feed my family during the Depression.”

When she was 7, Peggy’s mom told her dad, “In Oregon, the cherries are so big, they look like plums!” and they moved west.  Our Master Gardener propagator to be grew up in Portland, attended a secretarial high school, and laughs when she remembers retiring three times – as office secretary for Medford’s Construction and Laborers Union, from her husband’s claims adjustment office, and as a propagator at Rogue Valley Roses. She lived for a few years with her husband in Germany and visited China to see rhododendrons.

Peggy learned propagation while she lived in Washington State from an expert rhododendron mentor who believed, “Anyone willing to put in work should have a connection to the best (plant material) there is,” and taught plant genetics and DNA long before those subjects were common knowledge. She learned about greenhouses and the less costly propagation tents later used in Peggy’s Propagation Garden. She became a Master Gardener in 1989, and soon was sharing what she had learned from the Pacific Rhododendron Society in a new Extension-based Grandma’s and Grandpa’s Garden.

Peggy always enjoyed visiting with friends while propagating and gardening.  She worked on the Garden Beet. Over the years, Peggy taught propagation to new Master Gardener classes, spoke at the Spring Garden Fair, held classes at Winter Dreams/Summer Gardens, gave community education class talks and was on the Master Gardener Speaker Bureau roster. “I’ve always worked in the elements.”

“Gardening is my reason for getting up in the morning,” Peggy said. Her favorite flower changes with the season: “I love most all of the plant world – but not poison oak!” Peggy smiles and admits, “I have a love affair with seeds; I can’t keep my hands off them. It’s so interesting when they ‘hatch’.”  Peggy, who lived in Ruch, has 4 children, 7 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandkids. When she’s not out in the elements, she knits, crochets, reads, and, “I still love to bake – cakes, cookies and pies.” Peggy Corum, The mistress of Master Gardener Propagation.