I've been thinking a lot recently about names; thinking about cultivar names and about nursery names. William Shakespeare wrote, "What's In a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." But would it? I mean, yes, a given rose is going to smell the same regardless of the name assigned to it. The name doesn't change the essential characteristics of the plant. So why then get excited about a name? Well, because when I buy a plant I'm buying more than the characteristics I can see. In addition to the monetary exchange I am handing over my trust. I am trusting that the plant I'm buying is indeed a descendant or clone of what I'm trying to emulate. I'm trusting that cultivars will behave predictably and I will someday have a tree that looks reasonably like others of it's kind. I'm trusting the grafter chose appropriate scion wood, that the grafting was properly done and the union is healthy, that the roots I can't see don't girdle and create a health hazard down the road, that the tree has been well cared for in the time preceding my involvement. For that reason it's very important to me to know who grew the plant in the first place. And for the same reason I might pass by a plant from one grower and pay more for apparently less from another grower. What I'm paying for, in that case, is a greater likelihood that my trust is not misplaced.
Well said, Winter. I agree! And speaking of names, I think what you call a plant has a direct bearing on how you percieve the plant. That's one reason I don't favor the trend of naming new JM cultivars with Japanese names. Not that its completely horrible or something, but I want a name in my own language that means something to me. The country of origin of the species in question is irrelevant. Chickens came from Asia, but you don't see chickens for sale with Asian names - you see them with names like 'Rhode Island Red'. The tomato came from Mexico and Central America, but you don't see tomatoes with Hispanic or Aztec names - you see them with names like 'Centennial' or 'Better Boy'. I don't want to have to whip out a Japanese-to-English dictionary every time I see a new JM cultivar. I want it to have a name that "speaks" to me in my own language. My favorite so far, 'Olsen's Frosted Strawberry', perfectly evokes a mental image of the Strawberry Frosted Pop-Tart look of the leaves of that tree. That MEANS something to me. 'Aka shigitatsu sawa', conversely, makes my head hurt. :) This is why I favor giving every cultivar a number, like a Dewey Decimal System number for library books. No matter where I go or what language is being spoken there, the Dewey number identifies the book. If we had the same for JMs, you could be assured that you are indeed getting the cultivar you were expecting, no matter what name was on the label.
Well, I like the idea of a number system but I don't think it would guarantee getting the cultivar you were expecting. Even if the scion wood came from the correct plant and even if it was grafted onto the right rootstock and even if was cared for well and the graft union was healthy, my understanding is that if you take the scion wood from too deep in the plant you will get watered down characteristics. ARGH! Which is why, for me, I'm really trying to acquire knowledge of growers - not wholesalers or retailers but actual growers. I look for growers that have been around for decades. I look for multi-generation growers. I have a personal black list (won't buy from them again until the nether regions freeze over) and a personal brown list (certain cultivars are not an option but other cultivars are). But I'm frustrated because I had to put so much time and money into figuring out who not to trust and I've barely scraped the surface. And what about the growers out there not putting in the time and care they should? If we the consumer are not careful they will drive out of business the growers we need. I don't have a solution for this, but it's been preying on my mind.
Well said winterhaven, it is good to find a nursery that can be trusted to propagate the maples we buy, and to propagate them well. One trend I have heard of that is worrying is where some nurseries don't bother to keep dedicated mother plants, but instead just gather scion wood from whatever stock plants they have in the sales area that year - a sure recipe for genetic drift and plants with watered down or mutated characteristics, if you ask me. As for the number system of naming cultivars, it sounds good in an ideal world but it could never work in the real world. The current rules for naming plant cultivars apply to all plants, not just (Japanese) maples, as there needs to be a universal standard. These rules may not work perfectly, but they work well enough, especially in their efforts to reduce confusion with illegitimate translated names and such. There is no way maple growers could unilaterally adopt their own naming (numbering) scheme without upsetting the whole applecart, and that will never happen. Also there is the problem of what happens if someone writes the number down wrong. Mis-spelling a cultivar name is one thing, we can usually work out what the intended name was, but if someone at a nursery writes 348576 on the label, instead of 384567, it might be the identity of a completely different cultivar. A good idea in principle but will never be workable.
Maf, I agree with you on the issue of cutting scions off sales stock. I recently got A.s. 'Jordan', which I paid a fortune for, and it had been totally butchered for scions. Every branch had been cut! I will never buy from that grower again, especially since I paid a premium for the plant. I disagree with you on the numbering system. Numbers are far easier to work with, can be turned into bar-codes and made part of automation systems (which reduce errors), and cross all language barriers. The combination of numbers + names would be far better than names alone.
Hi K4, Don't get me wrong, I can see many advantages to a numbering system. I just think the current system is too firmly entrenched to be replaced by a new system and new set of rules. Imagine a nursery that propagate several different genera of plants, they are not going to be very interested in learning a new system that only applies to maples, and then what if the conifer people wanted to bring in a different system for conifers and so on.
Ordinarily, with any other type of purchase, I would think do your homework, educate yourself, and be aware of what you're buying. But it's frustrating because these maples do look so different based on growing conditions and on their maturity. And I think some sellers take advantage of that because they know if they foist off a mediocre example then they can convince us we're to blame. And I'm not talking about genuine mistakes. Everybody makes errors or has issues. It's what you do about them when they happen that shows your character. An experience like that made me feel like all my efforts to learn are futile. There have been a few times I've thrown up my hands and thought, "To heck with trying to learn about these trees, I'll just watch a tree at a nursery for a solid year before I buy it." Well, that's really not who I want to be. And that's not what I want to have to do. Sigh. What about having a standard for each cultivar? Vertrees/Gregory have given us a great start. Maybe the Maple Society could have a standard describing the parameters an example must fit in order to be considered "true to form" with accompanying photos of each season and a mature tree's form. But, gah, talk about paperwork and the potential to foment dissension! Additionally I really like the numbering idea as augmentation, especially since K4 pointed out about bar codes preventing errors. But I'm not a nurseryperson, just a small collector. And I'm really not a person to tell others how to do what I've never done. For me, what I personally can do is try to be as educated as possible as to what I expect from a tree. Further, I can try to be aware of the caliber of the originating source and try to spend my money in such a way as to cultivate responsible propagators. When I can. Again, I don't know how to solve it. It's just been preying on my mind. Thanks for listening.
I beg to differ. Of five varieties of tomato, I'm currently growing 'Wantia' (a Quichua-named cultivar of cherry-sized Romas), 'Chonto Santa Cruz' (a grape cultivar) and 'Lluvia de Oro' (yellow-skinned sandwich tomatoes) along with 'Roma VFN' and 'Strawberry'. Cultivar names are extremely local. This said, I do like the Hispanic cultivar names better in many cases, because they tend to be quite evocative - the yellow tomatoes are a case in point, as the name translates to 'Rain of Gold'. The English cultivar name for the same plant is 'New England Yellow.' I've also come across cultivars here named (and here I'm translating) 'Rain of Stars' , 'Tears of Heaven' (purple-skinned), and 'Bloodheart' (the last is a Tamarillo with gold flesh and red seeds.) For a better example, let's take Alocasia Amazonica, which is an accepted named hybrid. In South America, it's sold as Alocasia 'Ondas de Gloria.' (Waves of Glory) Exact same plant.
