I can't say how it was in the last few years, but Stark Bros. was a genuine
nursery, even to having their own research and evaluation program. They
inherited Luther Burbank's material when he died and they had a number of
his unreleased varieties. They released some, and held a number as being
virus-infected. I don't know what became of those items. I knew the R&D
head, who was a NAFEX member, and even had a shot at the job when he died,
but was uninterested in living in Louisiana, MO. Stark Bros. DID contract
to other growers to produce some stock, since they couldn't have done it
all themselves. In fact, there were nurseries in my area (western Oregon)
that produced stock for Stark's, but Stark definitely produced a lot of
their own material. They were the oldest nursery, if not company,
continuously in the same family in the US. They were sold to F&G due to
some mishandling of funds in the company that forced the necessity of the
sale.
-Lon Rombough
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