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Post by castanea on Jan 12, 2012 21:12:15 GMT -5
I'm curious as to how many of the plant varieties that were sold by the old Oregon Exotics Nursery can still be found. Many of these can now be found elsewhere but I've never seen this kind of diversity in one nursery catalog before or since. For those who are not familiar with Oregon Exotics, it was founded sometime in the early 1990s by Jerry Black of Grants Pass, Oregon. It peaked in the late 1990s and quit operating as a retail nursery sometime in the early 2000s. Oregon Exotics had the most amazing catalogs of unique items. Jerry Black was, and I'm sure still is, a great guy with an amazing focus on interesting plants. I don't know what happened inside the nursery to close it down, but from the outside the customer service was poor and inventory was often unavailable. Among the plants they sold were the following: Melloco (5 varieties) Oca (white, blush, red and yellow) Mashua (4 varieties) Yacon (2 varieties including a purple one) Tarwi - Andean Lupinus mutabilis Carica pubescens Cyclanthera pendata, explodens and spinosa Juglans neotropica - Andean walnut Arracacia xanthorrhiza 4 varieties of evergreen Rubus 10 varieties of dioscorea including- D. batatas, D. traitrung, D. malayensis, Godwari yam, D. pentaphylla and D. pentaphylla vikhar, D. japonica, D. penangensis and D. villosa Che - cudrania tricuspidata. Although che is fairly easy to find in the US, it's not very diverse in origin. Black brought in seed from all across China. The diversity of che in his orchard may have exceeded the diversity in the rest of the US. Choeriospondia sapondin (probably Choerospondias axillaris) Lo han kuo Cedrella sinensis Vitex cannabifolia (probably Vitex negundo) www.wm-sec.com/vitex_cannabifolia.htmCold hardy bananas Thladiantha dubia Albizia from Nepal Berberis from the Himalayas Maclura cochinchinensis (che relative) Amorphophallus from Tibet and NW China Docynia delavayi and Docynia indica- www.fruitipedia.com/assam_apple%20Docynia%20indica.htmThat takes care of much of the first half of the catalog. |
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Post by khoomeizhi on Jan 12, 2012 22:26:57 GMT -5
wow. lots of good stuff there. didn't know them when they were around. i sure can't find a source currently for arracacha. i know Cedrella sinensis aka Toona sinensis is available a couple places (seed from agrohaitai for one)...
love to have access to more diverse che, too.
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Post by atash on Jan 12, 2012 23:12:35 GMT -5
You will never see that much diversity again in our lifetimes. That said, I never saw it when they were operating. Most of my orders went unfilled. Someone who was party to that operation did however have a talent for over-the-top advertising copy. I think they drove people nuts with plant-lust, then were unable to deliver. Not sure what those would have been. The cold-hardiest banana that I am aware of is Musa basjoo, which makes small unpalatable seedy bananas. I have one in my front yard, having brought over a few rhizomes and shoots from my previous residence. Bananas by the way have gigantic rhizomes. It was a lot of work wrestling those out o the ground. Musa basjoo is quite common thanks to a chap in Vancouver Canada who imported one and had it meristemmed. Ray Mattei I think his name was. I had one of his early clones. Now they are all over the place and sometimes show up mass-marketed. There are several other purely decorative hardyish bananas, like M. sikkimensis. That one often has red undersides of the leaves. If you want a banana for eating, you could try M. x paradisiaca 'Rajapuri'. There are also "Horse Bananas" grown in the Gulf Coast states that are pretty hardy, but not very good. Maybe they'd make good plaintains. Rajapuri is supposed to be quite good. They had Andean blackberries. Those are hard to find, and if you can find the seed, it's hard to germinate, assuming it's even fresh enough to be viable. I've not seen any colored Yacons in the USA, which is too bad because Yacon is not too hard to grow and a colored one might be good for juicing. It's rare but it can be had. It was once sold at Trader Joes as "Chilean Papaya" (not to be confused with the native Chilean Papaya, C. chilensis), but I have not seen it anymore. Still not hardy enough. I don't think there are any Caricas that tolerate much frost; even the Chilean species Carica chilensis is not very hardy. Had this and managed to kill it. I should have raised it in a pot until it was big enough to fend for itself. One thing they had, that is devilishly hard to find, that I might actually have, is Prunus cerasoides--the Himalayan Cherry. Apparently there is one on the campus of UC Berkeley. The question is whether my seeds are viable. They're sitting in a pot outside stratifying. One of their specialties was cold-hardy Citrus. I can tell you that in retrospect, their varieties were not very promising. They had things like Citranges, which are bitter (half Trifoliate Orange), and Citrangequates which are small, slightly bitter, and very sour. You do better with stuff derived from C. ichangensis. Not as hardy, but doesn't have the "bite" of Trifoliate Orange. I have a Taichang Lemon (half Tawiania "lemon" (not a real lemon), half Ichang Papeda) in my back yard. No idea if the fruit will ripen this far north.  I think they may have actually had the Khasia Papeda, though, which is quite rare in cultivation--even in Asia!! They're harvested serendipitously from the wilds in habitat, but almost never cultivated. Papedas are closely-related to Limes but much, much hardier. I seem to recall they had Passiflora mollisima. For my purposes, there are probably better choices. It's nice, it's pretty, it tolerates cool temperatures, and the fruit is good, but it's not quite hardy enough and it doesn't sucker back like some of the hardiest species do. |
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Post by steev on Jan 13, 2012 0:01:49 GMT -5
Prunus cerasoides? Where on Cal, in the Bot Garden? Not that anyone would poach plant material, of course.
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Post by atash on Jan 13, 2012 0:15:57 GMT -5
Prunus cerasoides? Where on Cal, in the Bot Garden? Not that anyone would poach plant material, of course. Purely hearsay, and that from memory. I have never been there in my life. But if I get any seedlings, I'll propagate to the best of my ability to share. For those who are not familiar with it, it looks pretty much like a common sour cherry (hence the name), and it does bear a wild cherry type fruit. It probably performs better in subtropical climates than real cherries do, as I think it actually extends into the tropics (to Myanmar--Burma--apparently), and in some parts of the world it bursts into full bloom in October. No idea as to hardiness--probably relatively tender as Cherries go. USDA 8 maybe?  |
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Post by castanea on Jan 13, 2012 0:21:03 GMT -5
I killed quite a few of his trees. Many did not like the very hot dry summers we were having during that time.
They never had everything in stock. I know there are many people out there that never got what they ordered. I had my best luck when I drove to the nursery and just picked through things with Jerry. He had some stuff there that never made it into the catalogs including some Ziziphus.
Although he seemed to concentrate on south American and Asian plants, he would also list weird stuff from Africa like Aponogeton bulbs. He also listed hardy pistachios from north Africa.
The banana was Musa Basjoo.
He had 18 varieties of bamboo and some rare Nicotianas.
He did have Passiflora mollisima as well as a northern China Passiflora he called P. species v. kuangxii.
The catalog I am looking at had about 25 hardier citrus trees. He did have Khasi Papeda listed, only $18 for a 2 year old plant and $26 for a 3 year old.
In addition to some of the descriptions being over the top, some of the botanical names were incorrect. In some cases this was because they were using a non preferred name and in some cases it was because of spelling errors. I suspect that in some cases someone had written down the name correctly in longhand but with poor penmanship and then a typist missed a couple of letters.
Sometimes there were no botanical names as with the Tibetan Sweet lily. The tubers were supposed to be very tasty but the catalog did not explain what the botanical name was. Some of the people that worked with Jerry were very knowledgeable in some areas but it was hard to get hold of them (this was before most people were spending much time on the internet).
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Post by castanea on Jan 13, 2012 0:32:59 GMT -5
Utah State has a Diospyros docluxii from Oregon Exotics. It is a vigorous grower and a nice ornamental but hasn't fruited yet. The specimen is on Old Main Hill, northwest of the amphitheater.
If we only knew someone who lived near Logan Utah who could check it out next summer....hint hint hint
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 13, 2012 2:27:05 GMT -5
Utah State has a Diospyros docluxii from Oregon Exotics. It is a vigorous grower and a nice ornamental but hasn't fruited yet. The specimen is on Old Main Hill, northwest of the amphitheater. If we only knew someone who lived near Logan Utah who could check it out next summer....hint hint hint No way... Not the amphitheater!!! That was abandoned more than 30 years ago. That's a place to go on a dare, after dark, after you've been drinking all day long. And that's not the right time to be conducting a botanical survey. Here's a (public domain) photo from earth.gis.usu.edu/trees/info.phtml My best guess is that it is a typo of Diospyros duclouxii www.google.com/search?q=Diospyros+duclouxii&tbm=isch |
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Post by castanea on Jan 13, 2012 21:52:47 GMT -5
Nice looking tree. I would think it should be close to fruiting.
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Post by castanea on Jul 9, 2012 21:23:31 GMT -5
Nice looking tree. I would think it should be close to fruiting. Joseph - it may be fruiting now !!!!! |
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Post by bombay51 on Nov 11, 2012 12:35:52 GMT -5
I'm curious as to how many of the plant varieties that were sold by the old Oregon Exotics Nursery can still be found. Many of these can now be found elsewhere but I've never seen this kind of diversity in one nursery catalog before or since. For those who are not familiar with Oregon Exotics, it was founded sometime in the early 1990s by Jerry Black of Grants Pass, Oregon. It peaked in the late 1990s and quit operating as a retail nursery sometime in the early 2000s. Oregon Exotics had the most amazing catalogs of unique items. Jerry Black was, and I'm sure still is, a great guy with an amazing focus on interesting plants. I don't know what happened inside the nursery to close it down, but from the outside the customer service was poor and inventory was often unavailable. Among the plants they sold were the following: Melloco (5 varieties) Oca (white, blush, red and yellow) Mashua (4 varieties) Yacon (2 varieties including a purple one) Tarwi - Andean Lupinus mutabilis Carica pubescens Cyclanthera pendata, explodens and spinosa Juglans neotropica - Andean walnut Arracacia xanthorrhiza 4 varieties of evergreen Rubus 10 varieties of dioscorea including- D. batatas, D. traitrung, D. malayensis, Godwari yam, D. pentaphylla and D. pentaphylla vikhar, D. japonica, D. penangensis and D. villosa Che - cudrania tricuspidata. Although che is fairly easy to find in the US, it's not very diverse in origin. Black brought in seed from all across China. The diversity of che in his orchard may have exceeded the diversity in the rest of the US. Choeriospondia sapondin (probably Choerospondias axillaris) Lo han kuo Cedrella sinensis Vitex cannabifolia (probably Vitex negundo) www.wm-sec.com/vitex_cannabifolia.htmCold hardy bananas Thladiantha dubia Albizia from Nepal Berberis from the Himalayas Maclura cochinchinensis (che relative) Amorphophallus from Tibet and NW China Docynia delavayi and Docynia indica- www.fruitipedia.com/assam_apple%20Docynia%20indica.htmThat takes care of much of the first half of the catalog. |
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Post by bombay51 on Nov 11, 2012 18:38:16 GMT -5
Oregon Exotics had on their banner page what looked like a rusty red bananna with rusty red leaves and a wavy purple fringe around the leaves. They said the bulb was edible and could reach as much as 2 feet diameter. From peru. Any one know the name. I saw one in Kona 20 years ago 8 feet tall. Going to keep searching.
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Post by bombay51 on Nov 11, 2012 18:40:34 GMT -5
Oregon Exotics had on their banner page what looked like a rusty red bananna with rusty red leaves and a wavy purple fringe around the leaves. They said the bulb was edible and could reach as much as 2 feet diameter. From peru. Any one know the name? I saw one in Kona 20 years ago 8 feet tall. Going to keep searching. The most stunning plant I have ever seen.
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Post by atash on Nov 12, 2012 0:08:01 GMT -5
Bombay51, that sounds like Achira.
Canna edulis.
You can still find those. It's not too uncommon in cultivation. Ask around. It might have both red-leaf and green-leaf types, and I seem to recall having one with green leaves and red margins. A lot of them are quite attractive. Grow them just like any other Canna.
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Post by atash on Nov 12, 2012 0:10:46 GMT -5
Since this thread has been activated with a new post, time for an update I suppose: not one Himalayan Autumn-flowering Cherry pit germinated. Not one out of hundreds. I would guess the seed was too old. Pity. I am finding my success rate with rare seeds is poor. Immature, infertile, and too-old seed is the rule. Hard to find the exceptions. |
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