|
Subject: San Diego Aroids
This message was submitted by DJLEEDY@aol.com to list aroid-l@mobot.org. If=
you
forward it back to the list, it will be distributed without the paragraphs
above the dashed line. You may edit the Subject: line and the text of the
message before forwarding it back.
If you edit the messages you receive into a digest, you will need to remove
these paragraphs and the dashed line before mailing the result to the list.
Finally, if you need more information from the author of this message, you
should be able to do so by simply replying to this note.
----------------------- Message requiring your approval -------------------=
---
Sender: DJLEEDY@aol.com
Subject: San Diego Aroids
I am taken back by the disparaging remarks about Aroids in San Diego appear=
ing
on Aroidl. I collected aroids over 25 years (I was a very avid collector)
until 1994 and have visited the public and private collections at Kew (the
"old" aroid house), Munich with J Bogner and the Missouri Botanical (with =
T.
Croat). I have been to Selby, Fairchild, and the National Tropical Garden =
on
Kauai in Hawaii to name a few. I have toured commercial and wholesale
nurseries throughout the United States and toured hundreds of private
collections. And I have collected aroids in the jungles of Ecuador on two
separate occasions. Therefore I am qualified to speak and I believe that I
have seen some of the finest plant collections, including aroids, in and
around San Diego, California.
In the early 1970’s, before there was any popularity of aroids or even an
International Aroid Society, one of the finest U.S. mail order nurseries
dealing in aroids was Bill Virden in Poway, California, a San Diego suburb.
Upon his death, that collection was dispersed with a significant portion go=
ing
to Sherman Gardens, north of San Diego (in Orange County, I think). Even
before that, one of the major contributors to aroid hybridization, Horace
Anderson (as in P. 'Anderson's Red'), had a nursery in Encinitas, another S=
an
Diego suburb. A number of named aroid hybrids (in the trade) came about
because of his efforts and others in the San Diego and Southern California
area. A contemporary of Monroe Birdsey’s and, I believe, a fellow gradua=
te in
Botany from the University of California, Paul Hutchinson, had a nursery i=
n
Escondido, just north of San Diego, where a number of new aroid introductio=
ns
(newly collected material) were made in the 1970’s and 1980’s or before=
|
IAS on Facebook
IAS on Instagram
