Why are so many plants mislabelled?

BananaRepublic

I have a row of three prostrate rosemary shrubs, grown from specimens in 3” pots. Except they are 1 meter tall and would be far higher had I not repeatedly chopped them back. Prostrate? Nah. I had a blue hyssop that produced white flowers. And I have a redcurrant that produces pale pink fruit. I bought some chilli seeds described as having a habanero flavour. Turns out they are not habanero. The packet says Capsicum annuum. But the plants look like Capsicum baccatum. The web site says Capsicum baccatum I planted a 15 meter row of bare root Ligustrum ovalifolium described in the books as evergreen (except in harsh winters) to act as a privacy hedge. Every year in early winter they dropped every single leaf, so after 5 years I dug them up and planted Cotoneaster franchettii. Sigh.

Farway

No definitive answer but some may bed down to sloppy copy & paste from other source without regard to local [UK] conditions


Seed mislabelling must depend on supplier, some I suspect just bulk buy from a wholesaler by the lorry load without even seeing the seeds.

I've had cucumbers that seemed more like large round gourds, and I've an apple tree that waited a few years before it revelled it was not a Golden Delicious.

BananaRepublic

Almost all seed suppliers buy from wholesalers, few actually grow the plants and collect seed. I get poor germination from most, Real Seeds grow their own seed and it shows as germination is much better.

Davesnave

A veritable barrage of issues there!

With the privet, I too have been disappointed, mainly because I remember the hedges in town that always seemed to be green 24/7x365. Now I'm not sure if that's an example of the Mandela Effect, or if town is just a better environment for it!

With the other stuff human error plays a big part, I'm sure, especially as nursery staff, mass-producing plants, probably don't see much of a wage or anything in the way of real interest to the job.

Then there's open pollination and people passing-off seed-raised plants a named varieties....We always used to label those with "Ex- " but did customers get it? In many cases, I doubt it.

But apart from fruit and veg, where you want accuracy, the odd plant going native or swapping its colours is all part of nature's resistance to regimentation and I'm all for it.

Davesnave

EDIT: One thing that totally pees me off is the selling of seed at least a year old that ought to be planted within weeks of its maturing. I'm thinking here of fairly esoteric things, like many umbellifers, but even the humble hellebore won't germinate if it's harvested at Whitsun and sown in late August.....not the next spring anyway, and who wants to wait 18+ months?

There are a few seed suppliers who recognise this, but most will happily sell you one year old anemone, astrantia or eryngium seed that hasn't a snowball's chance in hell of germinating in 6 months, if at all, because the compost many sow in will go sour long before anything happens.

OTOH, some seed that's supposed to take a year or two to germinate can be persuaded to perform rapidly if you take enough of it and sow fresh immediately. I'm thinking here of things like my hawthorn, Crategus prunifolia, originally harvested from the grass outside the gents bog at RHS Rosemoor, which will throw up a few seedlings next spring if I plant at least 100 seeds.

Now, a completely blatant plug. If you want fresh seed of difficult to germinate plants, go to Derry Watkins' Special Plants web site. she might have what you want at the right time, but her range is limited and varies. She is the Real Seeds of the flowering plant world, except she doesn't ask you for a minimum order size and everything's £2.

peter_the_piper

There is also the "Tesco" effect where the customer takes the label out of a plant, to read it, then put it back in the wrong plant. Also the nursery is at the mercy of the plant suppliers, as Dave says human error sees wrong plants sent with wrong labels. We had a delivery of Iris and Geranium plants from a well known supplier, which when they matured and flowered were totally different to the labels and order.

BananaRepublic

Yes, human error. Mr Fothergill’s labelled Capsicum baccatum seeds as Capsicum annuum. You’d think the packet would be correct? I know wages are poor in garden centres, and that cannot help as you indicate.

Regarding privet, there’s loads here, my neighbours on the corner have some, and it all keeps most of its leaves. The variety I grew had rather large leaves, which it dropped. It flowered beautifully and I’ve never seen so many tortoise shell butterflies in one place. A nice hedge, but bare leaved come winter. The Cotoneaster franchettii which has replaced it has beautiful flowers for the bees, and winter berries for the birds.

Descriptions of plants do tend to be inaccurate, but often that is because growth rates are strongly dependent on soil, drainage and climate.

[Deleted User]

Davesnave wrote: »

..., the odd plant going native or swapping its colours is all part of nature's resistance to regimentation and I'm all for it.

I have an area of cowslips plants in the rear garden. For years they were all yellow (as expected).

Then about 5 years ago a red cowslip plant appeared and last year another red plant appeared. At this rate they will take over the world in about 3000 years.

Davesnave

Nature is always throwing up surprises. I have a cowslip plant that's just like all the other cowslips; it just happens to be at least be twice their size. No obvious reason, but it'll be handy for the long grass.