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On long, cold winter nights I enjoy looking through my old gardening books. One of my favourites and one I keep dipping in to was published in 1950. Not surprising things were done then more or less the same as we do now but what was interesting is the number of recommended varieties you rarely if ever see nowadays. Potatoes like Arran Cairn, Dunbar Standard, Dunbar Rover and Doon Early; Cabbages like Cotswold Queen and Flower of Spring. I could go on but you get the idea. Many of these veg varieties were gold medal winners and had good disease resistance so what led to their demise. Could it be that they were too unpredictable for the supermarkets and commercial growers...not the quite the right shape...too strongly flavoured. It just seems a shame that we have lost so much in my lifetime.
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i grew Dunbar Rover spuds last year....they were being sold by the tuber at Wyevale. not sure i've eaten them.....think i've put them away for seed for this year!. -
The EU forced suppliers to register [and pay to register] the varieties that they supplied; so unless the variety was top notch they stopped supplying them.
Thus, unless people were saving them themselves, they got lost over the years.
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Don't dispare to much SC as it is not certain that those varieties have been lost just because they aren't in any seed catalogue. There are an awful lot of strains being kept going by the armature grower which under EU rules can not be sold. If you can you want to get to a decent seed swap to see what is available and how much is done by GYOwnwrs. One of the best Seed swaps is in Hove but obviously to far for a day trip from Cumbria.
IanComment
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I've grown a cabbage called Offenham - Flower of Spring. Is that the same one?
Suttons have it here:
http://www.suttons.co.uk/Shop/Vegeta...eds+155253.htm
IIRC it was quite nice too
Last edited by pdblake; 11-01-2010, 03:52 PM.Comment
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There name is Brengirl. But, their seed lives on.Comment
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