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Where have all the people gone?

In 1962 I started to get involved in what I call “Organized Horticulture”.  At that time there were many civic, religious and horticultural organizations.  Every church and temple had a men’s club, woman’s club, single’s club, couple’s club etc.  There were Masons, Elks, Moose, Odd Fellows, Eagles.  Societies existed for chrysanthemums, rhododendrons, African violets, roses, […]

The Species Look

I  recently returned from the Northeast Regional Conference held in New Jersey in November 2005. It was a terrific meeting with everything done beautifully. There are, though, some comments I’d like to make. The theme of the meeting, the “Species Look” in rhododendrons, meaning rhododendrons with splendid foliage and compact plant habit, was different from […]

Some thoughts on a dry/hot summer.

Written in September, 2010 This summer has been murder on Long Island (just outside of New York City).  We started off with a very wet spring and the rhododendrons looked great, even though we didn’t have a great bud set caused by a cloudy, dark summer in 2009.  It started to get dry in June […]

La Bar’s White and Fifth Generation Glass White

Fifth Generation Glass White was in Sid Burns’ garden in 1965 and I don’t remember anything about it except it was white (I don’t remember anything about a blotch) and that Sid and Paul Vossburg valued it greatly.  Paul developed it by first selfing ‘Glass White’.  Only 3 or 4 seedlings of that were white, […]

Containers are Murder!

The following article first appeared in the New York Chapter newsletter, The Rhodora, Winter 1995. Richard Murcott East Norwich, New York During the last 15 to 20 years, the nursery industry has changed the way they grow and ship rhododendrons. Instead of in-ground growing, they have switched to growing the plants in containers with an […]