North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Sadly, Stark was once the standard of quality in nursery stock.  But since the company passed from Stark family hands, the current owners are a group known for hucksterism.   Further than that I won't say here because similar discussions have led to some rather heated arguments.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003. 
For even more grape lessons, go to  http://www.grapeschool.com
For growing supplies and more;  http://www.grapegrowersolutions.com

On Mar 10, 2007, at 8:44 AM, Michael Nave wrote:

My experience with Stark is that they exaggerate a
great deal and occasionally misrepresent facts. Here
is a deliberate misuse of a photo:

http://www.starkbros.com/access?action=product&productID=8909&collection=0

The photo on this webpage is used to represent
Colossal chestnuts. In fact, the photo is a photo of
Dunstan Revival chestnuts. The photo was taken at the
Chestnut Hill nursery in Florida. It has no
relationship to the Colossal chestnut.You can see the
same photo being used on the Chestnut Hill Nursery
website:

http://www.chestnuthilltreefarm.com/page7.html

Stark also says that Recommended Hardiness Zone Range
for Colossal seedlings is from zones 4-8. This is odd
because the original Colossal tree grows in zone 9 and
hundreds of Colossal seedlings grow in zone 9.
Additionally, Colossal has suffered dieback and death
in zone 5. I am not aware of anyone who has
successfully grown it in zone 4.

Always beware of anything you see in a Stark catalog,
even the photos.