Re: CAT: Quality

I asked Terry Aitken about some of the issues that had been mentioned
(being *very* careful not to divulge any identities.) His reply is below.

I think all the growers I have ever dealt with are more than happy to
make good on any rhizomes that turn out to be mislabeled. They all try
to be very careful. If you ever have any concerns, I encourage you to
contact the seller. Reputable ones will always want to help.

Terry Aitken wrote:
> 
> Hi John
> Thanks for passing on the comments. Interesting diversity.
> About 5 years ago, we phased out High School kids, primarily because
> they had a bad habit of dissappearing around Sept. 1st when we still had
> 6 weeks of transplant to deal with. We do hire H.S. graduates with the
> promise of an extended fall season. Most of our workers stay with us all
> the way thru college. Several have gone on to get masters degrees.
> Personnel this year.?
> -2 packers  - a mother(master gardener) and her teenage
> daughter(graduating from HS)
> -2diggers of TB's - twin boys (4th year) graduating from college and
> going on to masters degrees this fall.
> -2 diggers - medians - one has a masters degree(5th year with us) in
> music and is going back for her Doctorate this fall
>  - one is the local High School Horticulture teacher.
> -1 digger - beardless - (5th year with us) has a hort. degree and
> operates her own mail order plant nursery part time.
> All of our crew are instructed to dig the largest rhizomes they can find
> - always. A "bloom size" plant is any that show increase in August. The
> packing crew does a quality control check and any problem plants are
> redug, frequently by me.
> We replace any mislabelled plants that we hear about. We dont hear about
> many.
> All irises vary in size but our new introductions ('02) are very large
> for this time of year. It's the "chicken feathers"! We do not water as
> much as the "wholesale growers" because our plants do not have to
> survive in storage for a month until they show up in stores in Sept.
> Plants are fresh dug and shipped in  3 or 4 days.
> Just a couple of responses. You may post them if you like.
> Terry



John                     | "There be dragons here"
                         |  Annotation used by ancient cartographers
                         |  to indicate the edge of the known world.

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