Most garden blogs are written by home gardeners. A few are written by garden writers, and a few I’ve seen are written by nursery owners. The Plant Hunter – New Plants is the first blog I’ve seen written by someone involved in the process of bringing new plants to market. Tim Wood is currently the Product Development Manager for Spring Meadow Nursery. Does that ring a bell? No? How about ProvenChoice Winners, such as Hydrangea ‘Limelight’ or Sambucus ‘Black Lace.’ Yeah, those plants.
Well, Spring Meadow Nursery is a marketing machine like none other in the horticulture world and I was afraid this blog would be something akin to a link farm. You know, search engine fodder. Tim’s job is to find new plants for his firm to sell, so you will find plenty of them featured in his posts. But he gives you some background for how they were discovered and a little insight into what his job is like, and it’s not like each post is peppered with links. At this point I’ve just skimmed a few posts, but I have to confess I’m a bit curious about life on the other side of the tracks. His credibility will go up in my book if he can ever bring himself to admit that any of the plants his firm markets are even a teensy bit less than perfect.
Photo courtesy of Proven Winners
About Kathy Purdy
Kathy Purdy discovered the joys of writing in fourth grade, when she started corresponding with a former classmate. She's been writing letters ever since, first on looseleaf, then electronically, and now as weblog entries. That makes you, the blog reader, her pen pal. Her first independent (though frustrating) attempts at gardening were made in high school, though the gardening bug didn't bite hard until her mid-thirties, when she found herself mistress of a rural home on 15 acres. • USDA Hardiness Zone:4 • AHS Heat Zone: 3 • Location: rural; Southern Tier of NY • Geographic type: foothills of Appalachian Mountains • Soil Type: acid clay • Experience level: intermediate • Particular interests: colchicums, narcissus, cottage gardening, NY native plants, gardening with/for children
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I, too, have stumbled across Tim Wood’s blog. I even subscribed, but it appears he is not a prolific writer. It was interesting what he had to say about the initial development of Limelight. I am always looking for “the most beautiful “cold hardy flowering shrub and Spring Meadow is quite the marketing juggernaut.
Thanks for the link Kathy. I’m always on the look out for new and unusual plants. We just bought two “limelight” hydrangeas and have seen the sambucus black lace in the local nurseries. Now I know where they came from.
Nice find. I shall check his blog out further, thought at 1st glance it does appear quite interesting.