Caulis, cabbages, or carelessness?

Press, 21 October 1977, Page 11

Caulis, cabbages, or carelessness?

Home Gardening

By

DERRICK ROONEY

My Prunus subhirtella s.omething-or-other has just flowered. I say “something-or-other” because two years ago. when I bought the tree, I ordered the winterflowering Prunus subhirtella autumnalis. It arrived labelled “Prunus cerasus autumnalis.’’ Now there is a Prunus cerasifera, and there is a Prunus laurocerasus; but I don’t know of a Prunus cerasus. Never mind. My tree’s bark and buds looked right, so I shrugged my shoulders and accepted it. After all, there is more misspelling to the square inch on plant labels than on anything else since the written word was invented. But there’s a mb. My prunus is the focal point of a winter vista that leads the eye up, through carefully placed green and variegated foliage, to the pale pink flowers of the tree. There’s only one problem: in the winter, the flowers aren’t there. A Prunus subhirtella variety my tree is; Prunus sub-

hirtella autumnalis it ain’t. And there is very little I can do about it. To dig it out and replace it with the genuine article would damage everything else around it. I suppose I could complain to the nursery; and the nurseryman would almost certainly replace it.. But what would that achieve? His liability is limited to the original price of the goods. He will not — or cannot — be liable for the crops lost if his product fails, after several years, to live up to his description. Now, in the case of my prunus tree, no harm is done; I get my pink and cream vista in September instead of June, but I get it. What happens, though, to someone who orders an early dessert apple, say Gravenstein, and is supplied with a late cooking apple, say Lord Wolseley? Such a thing happened to me. I planted an apple tree labelled “Gravenstein.” Three years later, when it bore its first fruit, it turned out to be Worcester Pearmain. Now there aren’t many apples I actively dislike, but Worcester Pear-

main is one of them — and I waited three years for it. It came from a reputable garden centre that had bought in its fruit trees from a big grower. Now if I had complained, the garden centre would surely have given me a Gravenstein tree — but the site was already occupied. Why wait another three years? No doubt every gardener could tell similar stories. I could give many more — like the marrow plants that turned out to be cucumbers, the cistus seeds that grew into weedy petunias, the cauliflower plants that grew into cabbages. But, you say, you should be able to tell marrows from cucumbers, cauliflowers from cabbages. Maybe an expert can. But most gardeners aren’t experts. Of course, mislabelling is not always the fault of the garden centre. Unless a label is actually tied to a plant, customers will pull it out, read it, and put it back — more often than not, in the wrong pot. But the customer is always right.