Evelyn, I'm happy to see your interest in Historics.
Whether it's for sentimental reasons, a love of history, or a love of the simpler form, many of us here grow them. If you participated in the HIPS sale, you probably got some rhizomes from some of us indirectly..
A couple things on aging...
the steel player in band will be 79 next month and has more energy than the rest of us put together..
A good friend of mine started a new garden at 65.. I doubt that she thought she'd still be gardening 30 years later, yet she is.. and in that time has written two excellent books on Salvias..
I think both of them think in terms of possibilities rather than limitations. They've both been blessed with reasonably good health from a healthy lifestyle (and apparently good genetics).