Nursery Blues! (not baby blues)

Early in the spring of 2021 I decided to confine my garden activities to two perennial plants, rhubarb and asparagus. Armed with what little knowledge I could ‘glean’ from the internet, it was off to the local farm store to buy ‘starts’? 15 months later here is where I am, the rhubarb ‘crowns’ I got were green (Victoria) not red (MacDonalds), and they were apparently really old crowns, because while they came up big the spring (2022) they immediately wanted to go to seed. (more info from the net). On the asparagus, the six dry root ‘starts’ I got appear to be 100% female, the ones with the blossoms and seedpods. This is apparently ‘junk’ the nursery peddled off to the farm store. Females are routinely ‘culled’ and done away with, because they produce about 1/3 the spears you get from male plants. (More info from the net). What to do, after 15 months of work and expense, for nothing? Buy your ‘starts’ from a local nursery, demand a guarantee, and let the nursery people know right up front that if ‘what you got is not what you bought’ you will see them in court! Fraud is fraud, wherever it occurs! And yes, the local farm store is probably not the best place to buy nursery stock, and no, there is no guarantee it will be what you wanted.

Have a nice day!

#461 www.byrdsword.com

July 6, 2022