Rare Heirloom Fruits & Vegetables

[Bluebonnet]

I have not had a peek at their website, I've been for the most part shopping for new gardening supplies. I have two greenhouses, one for my tropical I am attempting to grow and for various other plants and one that is dedicated to my herbs and spices. I have a lot of containers for gardening as a result and I am always on the hunt for new ones to expand my plantings.

I am kind of a Burbank enthusiast. I wonder how many of his creations still exist? Surely, other recognize the numerous contributions the man made during his lifetime and view the continuation of his creations as a worthy undertaking?

If there is not a center that is dedicated to continuing his legacy already, there should be. Even if that means everyday gardeners taking up the challenge.

 

[Smart Red]

White blackberries! Just the thing to add to my wants list. I'll look into them once the CLOUD BERRY seeds are up and growing.

 

[Wishin']

I would really like some white blackberries (snowbank) too, it would be nice to ensure they're still here for future generations as well.

 

[897tgigvib]

Oh yea, what stage are those seeds at now Linn?

Blue, you and I think alike about Buurbank. I actually know more than the average person about him. He was Lamarckian rather than Darwinian in his thoughts about how evolution worked, and treated selection as a "training and learning" process for the plants, which were "students". That was not a little saying for him, but was how he truly viewed evolution worked.

He was somewhat cynical about the common worker, yet regarded all children in the highest regard. To quote, and he is quoted a lot: "Nothing great ever comes from any employee".

Where I am in wonder and admiration for his accomplishments, I have also lived my life to prove that quote wrong.

He was close friends with many great minds of his day, Edison, and Tesla, who were in great disagreement with each other. Ford and London, both opposites on the views of worker's rights. (London is notably absent from mention at the gardens, unless that has been rectified.)

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As for gardens dedicated to preservation of all, or as many as possible of his varieties, and even seeking ways to retrieve some lost in several ways: Some out there in folks' yards, others at abondened home sites, some near, others far, like in Japan. The collecting of them would be amazing.

Others would need to be recreated by redoing the crosses he did.

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In fact, collections of other great plant breeders and of old seed companies could be done also. Livingston for example, even W. Atlee Burpee's old pre 1910 varieties.

 

[Hal]

I view these varieties as a collector.

Price is not really an issue. I'm not looking to get something cheaply, I'm looking to gather these varieties to pass on to my children and grandchildren and so on and so forth.

If there is a way to get that berry, even if it costs a couple hundred dollars, I'm interested.

Good to hear!

 

[Jared77]

This thread is 1 more reason I'll be a part of TEG for as long as they'll have me. Great stuff here. Bluebonnet best of luck on your search, we're all pulling for you.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

In fact, collections of other great plant breeders and of old seed companies could be done also. Livingston for example, even W. Atlee Burpee's old pre 1910 varieties.

Livingston, can't forget him. Modernizer of the tomato - and from Ohio! It would be a shame for any of his varieties to disappear. I wonder if anybody in this area still grows any of the Livingston varieties...

 

[digitS']

Ben Quisenberry lived in Syracuse, Ohio and had a mail-order seed company called Big Tomato Gardens.

In those years, during the 1950's & 60's & prior to his death in the 1980's, there were very few people had any interest in anything "heirloom."

Just what role Mr. Quisenberry had in saving the Pink Brandywine seems to be glossed over by a proliferation of "other" Brandywines. I doubt if any of that makes a bit of difference to the role he played in keeping some gardeners supplied with varieties that would have disappeared without his efforts.

Syracuse, SeedO, where's that?

Steve

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Ben Quisenberry lived in Syracuse, Ohio and had a mail-order seed company called Big Tomato Gardens.

In those years, during the 1950's & 60's & prior to his death in the 1980's, there were very few people had any interest in anything "heirloom."

Just what role Mr. Quisenberry had in saving the Pink Brandywine seems to be glossed over by a proliferation of "other" Brandywines. I doubt if any of that makes a bit of difference to the role he played in keeping some gardeners supplied with varieties that would have disappeared without his efforts.

Syracuse, SeedO, where's that?

Steve

Interesting bit of information there. I like learning the history of the area in general, there's so much of it! I forget by who, but those chocolate-coverd ice cream bars- Kodak bars - were originally made right here in either Richland or Ashland Co. Along with the first flavored bubblegum.

Syracuse is somewhere in southeast OH right next to the Ohio river, in Meig's Co. I have not been there myself. My parents went down there to pick up some Craigslist-bought geese before. I would like to make it down to Adam's Co. sometime. Adams is the home of some state-endangered flora and fauna, including the Five-Lined Skink and the Eastern Prickly Pear cactus.

 

[Wishin']

The five lined skink is endangered in Ohio? They are like a pleasant infestation around here. Last year two of them found their way into the living room and lived in there for around a month. It would be sad to walk outside and not see them sunning themselves on every piece of concrete you pass.