REB: Quilt o' regional differences

>Rick Tasco/Roger Duncan wrote:
>> I wouldn't be so quick as a Nebraskan to make that statement for a
>> California garden.

Leslie answers:
>My Eleanor Roosevelt came from the Sass Gardens twelve years ago and I
>grew it mostly in Texas and New Mexico along with Black Magic. I've only
>been back to Neb. a year.

Leslie, hi! Thank you for sharing your expertise with both BLACK MAGIC and
ER. I don't think Rick was questioning your experience, which is valuable
and of great interest to everyone who has grown these plants, especially to
those who live where you have lived. I think he was reminding us *all* that
what holds in one part of the country won't necessarily be true in other
parts. You really know the climates you worked with in Texas, New Mexico
and now Nebraska. Rick really knows his California climate. Other folks on
the East Coast may have completely different experiences with both plants.

The fact is cultivars perform differently in different regions. Some may
have purple-based foliage in one place but not in another. Some may branch
more here than they do there. EDITH WOLFORD may refuse to grow in my Zone
7b garden but thrive in yours. What I as an Arkansan have to say about, for
instance, never mulching TBs, may be the wrong advice for someone living in
Canada.

Where we are in the world makes all the difference in the world. If we
listers learn nothing else from this endless Chautauqua, let it be a solid
understanding that regional differences really are different. Unless we've
grown everything everywhere and for substantial lengths of time, all of us
must humble ourselves before the regional limitations of our experience.

It's like a bootiful big quilt, our beloved DIVERSITY. :-)

celia
storey@aristotle.net
Little Rock
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