North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["road's end farm" <organic101@linkny.com>]

Gurney's seems to have changed hands again. They (along with Henry Field 
and a batch of other people) were owned for a while by Foster Gallagher, 
who went bankrupt, as near as I can tell after ruining the reputations 
of the companies they owned. Now they (and some but not all of the 
former Gallagher companies) are apparently owned by Gardens Alive. 
Whether this is an improvement time only will tell. (Most of this 
information courtesy of Plants by Mail.   URL below.)

http://plantsbymail.net/whoownswhat.php

I think the overall reliability of the company is more important than 
whether they're nursery only. One year I put in my orders late, and the 
only place I could find that still had Sparkle strawberry was Pinetree, 
a home garden seed and supply company (with a great remaindered book 
list, by the way). The plants I got from Pinetree were fine.

-- Rivka

On Thursday, February 20, 2003, at 02:32  PM, Lucky Pittman wrote:

> At 11:10 AM 2/20/2003 -0800, you wrote:
> > >From the Gurney 2003 catalog...
> > http://www.gurneys.com/item_disp.asp?pn=16333
> > "Strazzberry
> > Bursting with Berry Flavor
> > New taste sensation looks like a plump strawberry, packed with rich
> > raspberry flavor! Delectably different, Junebearer. 1-year."
> >
> > These were offered last year, too.  Does anyone have experience with 
> > these?
> > Is this an old variety with a new name?
>
> Ordered 10 last year - don't recall whether from Gurney's or Henry 
> Field - along with 50 Ozark Beauty, and 25 each of a couple of 
> junebearing varieties.
> Last time I'll order strawberries from anyone other than an actual 
> berry nursery, like Indiana Berry, etc.  Really sorry plants, on all 
> varieties, dried out or moldy - most were DOA or just failed to 
> thrive.  I think one Strazzberry survived the summer.
>
>
> Lucky Pittman
> USDA Zone 6
> Hopkinsville, KY