TB:CULT:tender varieties
- To: "i*@egroups.com"
- Subject: TB:CULT:tender varieties
- From: J* B*
- Date: Sun, 07 May 2000 08:17:22 -0400
Received Chuck Chapman's new and improved catalog yesterday.
I'm always impressed with his listing of tender varieties. It's neat to
see a businessman say, "These are ones I'm having trouble with. Watch
out, and don't buy them unless you are prepared to be a nurse maid."
However, some 700 miles north of me can apparently make some hardy
bloomers into tender varieties. A year ago I was giving away Tennessee
Woman because it is so prolific (as is Tennessee Gentleman). I finally
made a theme bed with a sign, "Sounds to me like Tennessee", put large
stands of both of them in the back center, ran Tennessee Vol down the
side, put Riverboat Blues, Johnny Reb, Hillbilly Heaven in the center,
plunked a couple of pink flamingos down in the middle of it all,
discount priced TN Gent at $2.50 and TN Woman at $3, and they are flat
out moving out. Practically everyone includes them on their orders.
To me, tender varieties include Before the Storm, which I have trouble
keeping in inventory, and which gives substandard bloom stalks like a BB
when it does work, but everybody wants black iris.
The worst tender variety for me is Michigan Pride, which just dies off
year after year. I'd never even had one strong enough to put up a bloom
stalk until this year when I put two new plants in a rebloomer bed with
extra compost and 6-12-12 and the best soil in the place. Now that I've
seen that ugly thing bloom, I can happily let it disappear from
inventory. I guess beauty is in the eye of whatever your favorite
football team is. My best seller is anything orange.
Not so tender varieties include a bed of species and early U.S. hybrids
and another bed of early European hybrids. Virtually all these, which
have stood the test of time are good, hearty plants which grow lushly
and tolerate crowding with little evidence of leaf spot or other
infection or contagion.
So far my most spectacular bloom this year is Sutton's Free Space, which
I've been trying to cross with everything in sight. It has so much
pollen I'm removing it from the anthers with a spoon rather than a tooth
pick, and the huge white flower with heavy ruffles and horns that stick
out a solid inch has just knocked everybody down. It's the first time
I've been routinely selling a flower priced at $15 and up. I would not
have ever believed I would be saying this about a white.
But of course it does go right well with Tennessee Vol, and that's my
audience.
James Brooks
Jonesborough, TN
comeback@usit.net
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