Re: CAT: Springhill/Customer Beware
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: CAT: Springhill/Customer Beware
- From: L* R* <l*@loc.gov>
- Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 07:45:17 -0600 (MDT)
On Tue, 10 Jun 1997 Walter Moores wrote:
> A Springhill Nurseries catalog, Tipp City, OH was in the stack. On the
> back cover is pictured a collection of three Japanese irises they are
> offering. These 'cultivars' are TEMPLE BELLS, MT. FUJI, and ROYAL ROBES.
> <snip>
> If you got a catalog from Springhill, please send them a message
> that their information is flawed.
I couldn't believe I was reading this. Back in April I posted the
following:
"Several years ago I was given a hostess gift of a half-dozen named
Japanese irises from a large, well-known mail order nursery. Shortly
thereafter I discovered the local chapter of AIS whose founding member had
all the checklists. I borrowed her books to look up hybridizer, year of
introduction, etc. of all my irises, only to discover that the names for
all of these Japanese irises were totally made up."
Well, that nursery was none other than Springhill and three of the irises
were TEMPLE BELLS, MT. FUJI, and ROYAL ROBES. (Can't remember the other
three made-up names, but they weren't in the checklists.) This happened
back in about 1984, so Springhill has been at this a long time. One of
them--TEMPLE BELLS I think--was good old pseudacorus.
At the time, my new friends in the iris society--one of them Clarance
Mahan--explained that some mail order nurseries that do not specialize in
iris were buying surplus plants from other commerical iris growers, or
unnamed stock from Holland or elsewhere, throwing on a made-up name (or
worse yet, an AIS name, as in calling any purple plicata STEPPING OUT),
and selling them as named iris. They were urging anyone who encountered
this to write to the offending nursery and complain. I had understood
that the letter-writing campaign had been largely successful, and that
most of these nurseries now sold such plants unnamed.
Apparently Springhill doesn't get it, or doesn't care. I endorse Walter's
suggestion to send them a message. Maybe this time we can make a
difference.
As I posted back in April, I buy named iris varieties only from specialty
nurseries or from local growers that I know have the names correct.
Mistakes still happen, but at least they are unintentional.
Lois Rose, in Central Virginia (Partlow, to be exact)
25 mi. SW of Fredericksburg in southern Spotsylvania County
on a little hill overlooking my murkey farm pond in the middle of 50 acres
USDA Zone 7; peak TB bloom May 15
LAs past peak but still beautiful; Hundreds of buds on the JIs, a few
showing color
