THE SEASONS OF THE GARDEN

Image Gallery Spicy Globe basil PHOTOS COURTESY OF GEORGEN W. PARK SEED COMPANY

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What's New for '85

Now, as wild winter winds rattle windowpanes, it's time to retreat to the garden of your mind. Pull out the pile of glossy catalogs and lose yourself for hours on end in their lush summertime of pictures and words.

by Peter Hemingson

The cornucopia I call my mailbox is overflowing—as usual—with catalogs from seed houses large and small. In this issue, I'll only be able to review some of the new offerings . . . but the rest will appear in the next issue of MOTHER.

Among the introductions from Agway, the big northeastern cooperative that sells mainly through its local stores, are the high-yielding Bounty bush bean, an early (50-day) variety with 6-inch pods that are slow to develop seeds . . . Prominence broccoli, a strong-growing 75-day cultivar that produces heavily . . . White Summer cauliflower, a good fall cropper with self-wrapping characteristics and excellent color and texture . . . Gold Dust corn, an early (72-day) yellow with good cold tolerance and vigor . . . and Fiesta Hybrid ornamental corn, which bears multicolored 7- to 10-inch ears that mature in a brief (for an ornamental) 102 days on short, sturdy stalks. Other Agway offerings include the very early (53-day) Red Ace beet, a hybrid with extremely high sugar content and welcome bolt and heat resistance, as well as tolerance of Cercospera leaf spot disease . . . Chinook II, a 42-day hybrid semi-savoyed spinach that combines the best of both worlds: It overwinters well and is slow to bolt in hot weather . . . and Castlette, a determinate hybrid cherry tomato that bears abundant crops 75 days after being set out and is resistant to verticillium and Race 1 (a prevalent type) of fusarium.

The folks at Spring River Nurseries (Dept. N, Spring River Rd., Hartford, MI 49057) have called my attention to a new "day neutral" strawberry, Brighton, that's capable of fruiting year-round! The result of research at the University of California and the USDA's facilities in Maryland, Brighton was developed from a plant that was found growing in the mountains of Utah. Unlike standard and everbearing varieties—both of which fruit in response to specific patterns of daylight—this cultivar's fruiting mechanism is unaffected by day length. In fact, if you take some plants in to a sunny window in the fall, you can have fresh berries for the holidays! The only thing that stops Brighton from bearing is temperatures over 100°F. (I must admit that I slow up under such conditions, too.) Since Brighton forms many runners that are capable of fruiting without being anchored in the soil, the plant makes a perfect indoor pot specimen. Send $1.00 to Spring River for two sample plants plus free information.

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