North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["victoria l. caron" <vicaron@gis.net>]

That's for sure Brian. The majority of these nurseries and many
privately owned ones really make it hard for people to succeed,
especially with trees. To compound this lack of information, they also
often stock varieties that the public will recognize but that shouldn't
be recommended in that zone or climate. I was in a local
livestock/feed/garden center this week. Every year I try to notice the
fruit tree varieties they carry because I've mentioned to them several
times that it would be nice if they carried zone 3 hardy plants. Last
year, besides the regular Red Delicious that will NOT ever ripen here,
there were Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and Winesap. This year, I
noticed they actually had Red Delicious in a preframed (for lack of
proper term) espalier form! The idea is interesting, the variety a waste
up here. I try to explain to merchants that when they carry plants that
will never perform or maybe even survive, they are doing the public a
disservice by setting them up to fail. While failures can be a great
source of learning experiences, there should be an ethical limit of this
when it comes to marketing.
vic NH zone 3

"Raby, Brian {20-4~Indianapolis}" wrote:

>  Working one year in the landscaping business, I've learned about how
> to properly pack the plants on our trucks before traveling to the site
> to work.  I see these tall trees that these stores sell and I can
> imagine people loading these tall trees into their vans, pickups, etc,
> and go whipping down the highway at sixty miles an hours, wind-burning
> the heck out them.  No wonder the plants don't survive!  I think it's
> up to the nursery people that sell and bring the plants to the Home
> Depots, the Lowes, etc.. to teach/instruct these places about
> informing the consumer about properly placing a cover over the plants
> before they take off for home.  The people that work at the do-all,
> sell-all places are temps that don't know the first things about
> plants.BrianSheridan, IN
>
>      -----Original Message-----
>      From: Lon J. Rombough [mailto:lonrom@hevanet.com]
>      Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 8:23 PM
>      To: nafex@yahoogroups.com
>      Subject: Re: [nafex] marketer's mirage
>
>      There's the beauty of it (from the seller's viewpoint) -
>      most people who buy
>      such monsters blame themselves when the trees fail, so the
>      store never has
>      to cough up for selling something ridiculous like that.
>      They'd be better
>      off, and only a couple of years slower, to plant from seed
>      and give the
>      seedling GOOD care.
>      -Lon Rombough
>      Grapes, writing, consulting, more, plus word on my grape
>      book at
>      http://www.hevanet.com/lonrom
>
>      ----------
>      >From: Ginda Fisher <ginda@concentric.net>
>      >To: nafex@yahoogroups.com
>      >Subject: Re: [nafex] marketer's mirage
>      >Date: Wed, May 9, 2001, 5:57 PM
>      >
>
>      >Marketing woes are hardly limited to fruit trees.  I was at
>      the Home
>      >Despot the other day.  Their nursery building was full of
>      giant trees.
>      >I mean, trees 20 feet tall and more.  Not a lot of branches
>      (tied up, so
>      >maybe more than I could see) and even less root.  They had
>      burlaped root
>      >balls maybe two feet across.
>      >
>      >I find it hard to believe these things are going to
>      prosper, especially
>      >if purchased by homeowners who probably won't think the
>      water them every
>      >day for two years.
>      >
>      >If they had labels, I couldn't find them.  (I did see price
>      tags.
>      >$150-$200.)  Honey locusts, a few types of maple, birch.
>      All fully
>      >leafed out.
>      >
>      >Ginda
>      >
>      >Thomas Olenio wrote:
>      >>
>      >> Hello,
>      >>
>      >> Speaking of a "marketer's mirage", 90% of the apple trees
>      at one local
>      >> nursery are "collection" trees.  They each carry 4 grafts
>      of various
>      >> apple varieties.
>      >>
>      >> It is funny...  When I talk to the nurseryman they tell
>      me there is less
>      >> and less interest in fruit.
>      >>
>      >> With selections like a "collection" apple, which is bound
>      to produce an
>      >> unusual, unbalanced tree, which will most likely
>      dissapoint the grower, it
>      >> is no wonder there is less interest in fruit.
>      >>
>      >> Regards,
>      >> Tom
>      >>
>      >> --
>      >> Thomas Olenio
>      >> Ontario, Hardiness Zone 6a
>      >>
>      >> On Wed, 9 May 2001, dwalsh/wchase wrote:
>      >>
>      >> > Joe,
>      >> >
>      >> > I agree that the columnar apple trees are a marketer's
>      mirage.  The
>      >ones I've seen
>      >> > definitely grow branches and these must be cut off
>      early and the person
>      >who buys
>      >> > this does not know it ... result is a dwarf
>      semi-branched apple tree with
>      >> > bland-tasting fruit.
>      >> >
>      >> > Also, they are marketed as stand-alone apple trees, but
>      they are not
>      >self-fertile.
>      >> >
>      >> > Derry
>      >> >
>      >> > Derry Walsh & Bill Chase
>      email:wchase@interchange.ubc.ca
>      >> > Aldergrove,  B. C.,  Canada
>      >> > phone/fax (604) 856-9316
>      >> > ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
>      ~ ~ ~
>      >> > Home web page
>      http://www.interchange.ubc.ca/wchase/HTML
>      >> > ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
>      ~ ~ ~
>      >> > :
>      >> > : My two cents is that the columnar form stinks for
>      raising quality
>      >> > : fruit.  One vertical with
>      >> > : many 6" side branches and fruit on side branches.
>      Roger's kept pushing
>      >> > : vigorous side branches at 30 degrees from vertical
>      which then competed
>      >> > : with the central leader.  Stark's response was that
>      the grower had to
>      >> > : prune them to make them look like the picture in the
>      catalog.  Roger was
>      >> > : put-out because he could prune *any* tree to look
>      like the picture.
>      >> > :
>      >> > Columnar apples are an
>      >> > : bad idea that was some Madison Avenue types used as a
>      gimmick to foist
>      >> > : trees onto the naive public.
>      >> >
>      >> > :
>      >> > :                                             -Joe
>      Hecksel
>      >> > :                                              Eaton
>      Rapids, Michigan
>      >> >
>      >> >
>      >> >
>      >> >
>      >> >
>      >> >
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