Avante Garden
by Derek Fell
It was the late Luther Burbank who declared, “Selection is the beginning and end of plant breeding.” In other words selecting the right parents to cross pollinate in the production of a new hybrid, was key to getting a superior result. The same is true of gardening. You can have perfect growing conditions, such as adequate sunlight, rich soil fertility, regular irrigation, weed control and pest control, and if you have not chosen the right variety for your growing conditions, the results can be disappointing.
Gardeners in Bucks County are lucky because many of the most famous flowers, fruits and vegetables were developed by Burpee Seeds at their Fordhook Farm experiment station, near Doylestown, and so varieties like ‘Big Boy’ hybrid tomato, ‘Fordhook’ lima bean, ‘Big Max’ pumpkin, ‘Lady’ American marigolds, ‘Burpeeana’ cactus flowered zinnias and ‘Gloriosa’ daisies are examples of plants that Bucks County gardeners can expect to do well. Today, in addition to viewing superior flowers and vegetables at Burpee’s Fordhook Farm, on their open days, gardeners can visit test plots at Penn State’s Landisville Flower Trials, near Landisville, Pennsylvania, and also the test plots at Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.
For six years, in the 1960’s I worked as catalog manager at Burpee, with an office that overlooked the test plots, and I was pleased to introduce some of Burpee’s more recent innovations. In particular, I admired the work of vegetable breeder, the late Ted Torrey who developed what I consider the best flavored of all cantaloupes. Called ‘Ambrosia’, it has a small
To finish reading Grow This! by Derek Fell, turn to page 42 in our Summer 2013 issue of Bucks County Magazine.