North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

One thing I didn't mention about nurseries as far as misidentifying varieties is that nurseries that supply commercial growers usually supply their own wood and usually get ID right.  They just have to when they have have a customer base whose livelihood depends on it.

 

That said, I did get misidentified trees from one commercial supplier when some Green Gage plums (about 70 actually) came from them that were some kind of green Jap-type that resembled GG in color only.  When I called to complain the rep said that this plum is so commonly mis-identified that they felt they had license to call just about anything Green Gage.  The reason they thought it would be OK is that commercial growers aren't growing GG and they knew that the trees would be going out to amateurs who supposedly wouldn't notice.

 

I have also ordered misidentified GG's from two home garden type nurseries.  Another variety whose ordering often results in receiving something else is Cox's Orange Pippin.  Nurseries often seem to assume that home growers would be happier with something easier to grow that looks a little like Cox but is actually only a related variety.   Similarly, Green Gage is a relatively difficult plum to grow in most of the U.S..