White Rabbit Cherry

[Miracle82]

Joe was my uncle..... I have many many of his seeds, unfortunately I can not get any of them to germinate. I believe it has been quite some time since they have been saved. My uncle has passed away and I am doing everything I can to get some of his seeds. I am not sure how he handled his collection and how they have turned up in so many places...including Amazon. But Carolyn you state you knew my Uncle and so I am reaching out to you with help in figuring out how I can get seeds which were truly his..... Thanks so much.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Miracle82

Joe was my uncle..... I have many many of his seeds, unfortunately I can not get any of them to germinate. I believe it has been quite some time since they have been saved. My uncle has passed away and I am doing everything I can to get some of his seeds. I am not sure how he handled his collection and how they have turned up in so many places...including Amazon. But Carolyn you state you knew my Uncle and so I am reaching out to you with help in figuring out how I can get seeds which were truly his..... Thanks so much.

Your post is very difficult for me to answer for many reasons. First he told me many times he had no relatives in the US and then I found, from him, that he had no living relatives left in Germany either.

And yes, I knew him very well and I think it was just a couple of years ago that he sent me an e-mail, so when did he pass away?

Initially he found seeds in glass jars in the toolhouse, could not germinate them and sent them to me and I was lucky to get several of them going such as Box Car Willie, Mule Team, Red Barn, Great Divide, etc., and those were bred by his father, not Joe.

Then he sent me a list of varieties that I believe some were authentic heirlooms from the Black Forest area of Germany and those were Marizol Gold and Marizol Purple and Eva Purple Ball. Subsequently he bred Marizol Red and marizol Pink and passed those off as heirlom varieties And I was not the only one to whom he sent his lists.

He also got seeds for many varieties from the then existing Forums at Organic Gardening and national Gardening as well.

One on his list was called by him Purple Brandy and no such thing existed and I suggested he call it Marizol Bratka, but he had already sent out seeds to others with the initial name which then caused great confusion.

He said if it's heirloom varieties that folks want then I'll breed them, and breed them he did, many of them and he found one person who would grow anything he sent that person even with the fictitious histories he gave them and that person then listed them in the SSE Yearbooks so that many thousands of folks then had access to them.

And then many listed them in their own seed offers, and many offered them at their seed websites.

I don't have the time to list all that he bred, but he did get them out to the public, which was the right thing to do, so one cannot say that the seeds were his and his alone.

Did he make any money from doing what he did? Nope, none of us do who find new varieties for what are called Open Pollinated ones, as opposed to F1 hybrids

Why don't you send me a list of what you are looking for, just PM me here at Tville, and I'll give you several suggestions on how to get some of them.

Summary? No one owns seedsof varieties they offer of the OP ones, which his were, for hybrids it's different in terms of ownership and quite compliacted at that.

I hope the above has helped, but still wondering why Joe never told me he had ANY relatives in the US. I know the house he lived in was his parents house and he lived there alone after they both died, and he did send me many pictures of his gardens, everything planted closely since the yard that went with the house was very small, as well as that toolshed where his father had stored what he bred in glass jars and already named.

Carolyn

[Miracle82]

I can not be sure as to why he would have gone on to say he had no living relatives in the US. As you had mentioned before he did have problems in living and so in many ways he was alone. Perhaps that sparked his answer. It is correct that the home he lived in was my grandparents and that he lived there alone after they passed. My Uncle Joe passed away about a year and a half ago. I have several of the seeds, but can not get them to germinate. Is this typical if they have sat for too long? I appreciate your in depth reply. And you are right in your description of his garden and tool shed. His garden was the most beautiful thing I have ever set eyes on. Such dedication, creativity, heart and soul went into the garden space.... I really miss him. I am just trying to keep his spirit alive by growing some of the tomatoes that he "bred". I am not an avid gardener, so all of these terms are new to me. Thanks so much for all your help. I guess in particular I am looking for a tomatoe that would be great as a patio/container tomatoe.... I also would like to find genuine seeds from his snow white, ghost, and white rabbit ......

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Miracle82

I can not be sure as to why he would have gone on to say he had no living relatives in the US. As you had mentioned before he did have problems in living and so in many ways he was alone. Perhaps that sparked his answer. It is correct that the home he lived in was my grandparents and that he lived there alone after they passed. My Uncle Joe passed away about a year and a half ago. I have several of the seeds, but can not get them to germinate. Is this typical if they have sat for too long? I appreciate your in depth reply. And you are right in your description of his garden and tool shed. His garden was the most beautiful thing I have ever set eyes on. Such dedication, creativity, heart and soul went into the garden space.... I really miss him. I am just trying to keep his spirit alive by growing some of the tomatoes that he "bred". I am not an avid gardener, so all of these terms are new to me. Thanks so much for all your help. I guess in particular I am looking for a tomatoe that would be great as a patio/container tomatoe.... I also would like to find genuine seeds from his snow white, ghost, and white rabbit ......

Above I had asked you to PM me about this but not seeing that I'll answer here.

First, if Joe had no dates on any of the packs or jars of seeds you had then there's no knowing how old they are and yes, older seeds do not germinate as well as fresher seeds and sometimes not at all.

SnowWhite, Ghost and White Rabbit are pretty much the same, so I'm going to suggest that you grow some varieties that your Uncle was best known for and those would be:

Eva Purple Ball, a wonderful pink globe one

Marizol Gold, which is a gold/red bicolor and most of these bicolors did originate in Germany and some in nearby countries.

Marizol Purple

The above three were ones that were truly his own family heirlooms and I think that's important.

Your Uncle did not breed any what we call determinate varieties which most folks use for container growing, but there are many available that were developed here at Tville by the Dwarf Project.

Rather than sending you to a seed vendor site I'm going to suggest the following.

As you scroll down through this page you'll come to two seed subforums, the first is called seeds WANTED and the second one Trades.

In that Wanted one, you select new topic at the upper left and click on that, then list the varieties you are looking for of Joe's.

Here, I'll give you a direct link:

http://tomatoville.com/forumdisplay.php?f=64

After you list the ones I suggested, I mean you could list more, but as I said above, your Uncle was best known for those three family heirlooms from Germany.

Then ask if anyone could suggest to you a variety that could be grown as a patio tomato and that it's been suggested to you that one or more of the Dwarf varieties would work.

Folks reading your post will then tell post and tell you what they have and can send you and ask for your Home address.

Never EVER post that in public. They will ask you to PM ( private message) your address to them. To do that click on their user name which then takes you to their page and you'll see there at the upper left, the words send Private message, click on that and then type your home address and hit SEND/

Here are links to Tania's pages for the three family heirlooms I'm suggsting, just for your information.

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Marizol_Purple

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Eva_Purple_Ball

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Marizol_Gold

And yes, you'll see my name, Carolyn Male, associated with all three of the above varieties and yes, I knew your Uncle for many years as you can see on the dates given in the above links.

It might also interest you to know where the word marizol came from. Many years ago I taught a student from Germany and she knew the black Forest area very well. And she ASAP said that someone had contracted the name of what was known there, which was Maria's Zell, aka Maria's village/town and shortened it to Marizol.

Also, the two Marizols have beautiful blue/green foliage which is not that common.

Hope that helps,

Carolyn

[Miracle82]

Carolyn,
You have been more then helpful!! I can not thank you enough!!!!!!!