These are actually off topic, but fun stories.
Ralph told the story of a plum which was quite hot in the teens or twenties. A man approached Burbank with the offer that if he could produce one thousand trees of this plum by the following season, he would take them all. Burbank knew almonds germinated quickly and produced graftable whips, so he sewed more than a thousand almonds to produce the whips. He busily grafted this plum to every seedling which emerged and had well over nine hundred of these plums ready for the man by the deadline. He bought them all.
Ralph had a pink California poppy which he felt would be very decorative if grown along the freeway embankments. The issue was, how to get poppy seeds to the hillsides where he wasnāt able to walk. He began developing mud balls which would hold the seeds on their surfaces, but which would shatter fully, distributing the seed where he wished them. Once he felt he had the required type, he created a box full of them, coated with the pink California poppy seeds, then drove up and down Hwy 198, throwing poppy coated mud balls all along the highway. As he told me the story, I began laughing like a loon. He asked why and I asked him if heād thought of the newspaper headlinesā¦āLife-long Visalia businessman and resident arrested for littering the freewayā. We both got a very good chuckle from it.
Whatās being described is precisely how the Halo series of minis arose. Ralph wanted that Hulthemia blotch, but hadnāt access to any of the hybrids yet. He noticed Anytime (among others) had a lavender petal base instead of the obligatory white or yellow. He reasoned lavender was an āadulterated redā, so he set about to increase the size and intensity of the lavender base, then select for less āadulteratedā red bases.
He had Angel Farts, so he used it with Anytime to increase the size and intensity of the lavender. He had Orangeade, which is intensely fertile (as are both Angel Farts and Anytime), which also possesses the lavender petal base and which would increase the bloom size and saturate all plant pigments. He selfed regularly to isolate and fix the āhaloā he desired, then began inserting Gold Badge and Playboy to decrease the pink and lavender and replace it with the desired yellow. He hunted yellow from his first breeding efforts. He was immensely pleased with Halo Sunrise, feeling he had accomplished replicating Hulthemia without using any of its genes. Further crossing his Halos with Hulthemias excited him as he felt he was reinforcing and improving the trait.
He did similarly in an effort to create a truly double Crepe Myrtle. His final result was very deep violet, containing two and a half āpetalsā with very few stamen. Heād created a line of denser, shorter Crepe Myrtles which J&P expressed an interest in and had actually given him money for, but never did anything with. His lilac breeding followed similar lines. He selected for stronger, more upright plants, which would flower earlier and longer with less winter chill. He had hybrids in the āback fortyā with individual florets of nearly an inch in diameter! His Blue Skies is one of the finest, most reliable, warmer weather lilacs available. I have two of his seedlings, one of which began flowering here in October. Itās final flowers are fading and drying now. We donāt really have a āwinter chillā here. Burbankās white black berry will not flower and fruit here. The evergreen, ever-bearing, thornless black berry will not flower and fruit here. The remaining self seedling of Burbankās Apex Plumcot I have, will flower lightly unless the winter is particularly āsevereā. Itās one of the most heavily flowering, most beautiful flowering fruit trees I have encountered. Not very good fruit, but as an ornamental tree, it is spectacular.
Ralph played with amaryllis for decades. One of his green houses had a long row of them in the ground under one of the benches. The foliage of these amaryllis grew through the slatted benches and obscured the two and three gallon roses which grew on the benches. His flower spikes were over three feet tall and carried not the three expected flowers, but heads of up to seven, large, red amaryllis blooms. Of course, the bulbs were also massive. Carolyn made sure people got some of the bulbs so they wouldnāt be lost once his children had their way with the nursery, but Iām not sure where they are.
Burbank did all of this to create the thornless prickly pear cactus, figuring it would make an excellent, sustainable cattle fodder, except cattle wonāt touch it. His white black berry was a great accomplishment as it succeeded in eliminating black berry problems of staining your teeth, fingers and clothing as he saw them. They DO taste good, but are the snottiest looking fruit Iāve ever seen. Greenish-ivory-white, translucent berry sections with visible seeds (resembling snail eggs!), quickly taking on tobacco coloring as they age. They contain much sugar, so begin aging very quickly. One of my favorite bosses was of Greek descent and would eat anything. I brought her a bag of ripe, white black berries. She made me eat some first as she said from their look, I was surely trying to poison her! Alone, they would make the nastiest looking jams, jellies and pies! But, shared with a friend in Alabama who wins the Fairs and other competitions for her jams and jellies, the nearly colorless juice has enabled her to include black berry flavors in lighter colored creations and led her to several wins because of her āsecret ingredientā.
Ralph was aware of the Pink Panda strawberry. He dabbled for many years, attempting to develop a potentella flowered, yellow with red center, fruiting strawberry. He selected forms, types and sports of conifers, communis and other plants. His Westmont arborvitae was a selection he named for Westmont College, the proceeds from its sales going to fund a scholarship to the college.
Ralph satisfied his āDr. Moreauā interests with plants. He could ruthlessly cull seedlings and plants, and was disappointed when something failed to flourish. He could never have bred animals. He ached for strays; all were either taken in or found homes. He ached for the loss of any animal or person. The nursery had many old, stray cats, and all knew they were forbidden entry to the greenhouses. āHis catā, the one who followed him around like a dog, remained on the roof of the greenhouse he was in, remaining as close to him as she could, only above him. Carolyn has photos of her on the roof above his head and shared it with us at the recent Visalia event.
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