MEMPHIS, Tenn. — If passing through Memphis soon, consider searching out the Memphis Botanic Garden’s Delta Heritage Garden bed, newly established this year.

The 96-acre Botanic Garden’s reasonable admission ($8 adults, $5 children) and proximity to the interstate, on Memphis’s south side, make this a good vacation stop. The Heritage Garden is located near the Botanic Garden’s Butterfly Garden; be sure to ask directions at the visitor center, as newer exhibits may not yet be on the Botanic Garden map.

Staff and volunteers are available around the grounds for direction. If traveling with children, be sure to accept the fish food offered with admission and stop to feed the koi in the Japanese Garden on the way to the Delta Heritage plantings.

Notably, the Delta Heritage Garden features plants and crops native to the region, especially heirloom vegetable and cotton plants that have been harvested for generations.

“A botanic garden is really a living museum of collections of plants,” said Rick Pudwell, director of Horticulture. “I also feel some of the collection should be of local interest. Plants of historical and economic interest certainly fit into that.”

The garden’s vegetable and cotton plants are surrounded by annual flowers, such as marigolds, that are popular for vegetable garden borders. This year’s heritage cucurbits, Amish Sun, Moon and Stars watermelon and Homemade Pickles cucumber, were starting to ripen, but the plants were obviously weather-stressed from early-season heat followed by lots of moisture during a July visit.

Some of the heirloom varieties planted in the Delta, like the watermelon, cucumber and Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans, are the same found in many Midwest gardens. Other varieties are distinctly Southern.

Bowling Red okra, named after the family that originally selected the seeds in Virginia, was as tall as a point guard and just starting to flower in late July. The okra’s red foliage displayed how an annual vegetable could add height and texture to a flowerbed.

Heirloom varieties of Southernpea (black-eyed pea) and peanuts were also maturing, but the garden’s Bloody Butcher dent corn – a red-kerneled heirloom variety- had suffered damage during a Memphis windstorm.

The Delta’s cotton heritage is highlighted in the three “natural-colored” cottons planted in this year’s Heritage Garden. Natural-colored cottons are varieties that are usually without white fibers. Such varieties were grown by slaves before the Civil War, as many were prohibited from growing or wearing white cotton.

This year’s planting includes Nankeen, a brown cotton originally grown in Louisiana, and Erlene’s Green from East Texas, a cotton that starts out olive green and fades to a yellow-green as its fabric is washed.

The most interesting heirloom cotton may be the Red Foliated White. The dark red stems and leaves of this variety add color to the garden, complementing the taller Bowling Red okra. The plant begins as green and then colors to a dark red, but the cotton produced is white-fibered.

Any gardener knows the uncertainty of trying new crops, and the Botanic Garden had a challenging year with Memphis weather and locating a spot with soils suitable to the range of species planted. In fact, Pudwell is still uncertain if the cotton plantings may produce bolls.

“The soil is pretty rich back there, so maybe it won’t flower because the plants aren’t maturing,” he said. The weather also wiped out the watermelon crop, according to Pudwell.

Such displays remind travelers of the Delta region’s rich garden heritage, the changes made in producing food and fiber and the uncertainties still inherent to food and fiber production in the Mississippi Delta and beyond.