A song popped in my head today by a Canadian singer named Cory Hart. “I Wear My Sunglasses At Night.” Do you remember that? Okay, first of all why would you wear your sunglasses at night? But, believe it or not, someone wrote a song about that question and it played the airwaves in 1983.
Billy Ray Cyrus. “Achy Breaky Heart”? I saw him at a concert. He played the song four times. That’s how popular it was.
What do Billy and Cory have in common? One hit wonders. I’m not bagging on their careers. I’m just saying “here today and gone tomorrow”.
I can only imagine the amount of money spent on marketing these songs to make them the hits they were at the time. The money these two artists made from these two songs most likely carried them for years. I guess it doesn’t matter if you’re a one hit wonder when you sell 16 million records off a single song.
In the plant world we too have one hit wonders.
What a beautiful plant this is. Everybody wanted it. This is loropetalum. You may not know what that is, but I know if you walked the neighborhood you’d recognize it right off the bat. Usually it grows 3-6′ and blooms pink in the spring. This little dandy came out a few years back. This is loropetalum ‘Pixie’. It’s a ground cover. We all jumped on the bandwagon. We bought as many as we could and grew as many as we could. And then, it was gone. This plant is the only one that I know thriving. I have a few at Maple Rock. They were small when they went in and they are still small.
We growers got excited about the plant because everyone wanted a dwarf loropetalum. So, it got pushed to market too fast without going through enough trials. The problem was is that this plant was very hard to root and crop failures were very high as a result of it. So, growers stopped growing it.
It disappeared for a few years and has come back as loropetalum ‘Jazz Hands Mini’. So, this one I think they got right. It’s root system seems stronger and has the same characteristics as ‘Pixie’.
There was a tomato plant grafted onto a potato tuber. They called it ‘Ketchup and Fries’ and they sold it on the premise that you can make ketchup and fries from the same plant. Wouldn’t that be a treat? Truth of the matter is that the tomato and the potato while they are cousins ripen at different times. So, the potato ripens first and when you harvest it, what do you think happens to the tomato portion? They would have been better off calling it potatoes and cilantro.
Grafted tomatoes came down the pipeline. They tried to trick Nature. It didn’t work. The thought was that a grafted tomato could start growing earlier in colder climates. I would bet a million dollars went into this research and development, as well as marketing. Why would you need a grafted tomato when you can’t even eat all the cherry tomatoes a single, normal plant produces?
Have you ever bought a fruit tree sold as a ‘fruit salad’? Pretty cool if you think about it. You can go out, pick fruit and make a fruit salad. Spoiler alert – fruit ripens at different times and the plum is so dominant that eventually all you end up with is a plum tree.
Do you remember the sea monkeys in the cartoon books you could buy? They wore crowns, had happy little faces and sat in the bowl and waved to you. I was so disappointed to find out that they were just little krill that looked like cloudy water.
Train Day is coming up September 15th. This is not a one hit wonder.
Join us September 15th. Enjoy lunch and a cocktail if you wish. Trains will be rolling down the tracks and the garden will be available for strolling.
Have you ever met Crazy Dory or Farmer Ryan? This is your chance. U-pick flowers will be available as well as fresh picked watermelons and cantaloupes from the fields. How fun is that?
Live entertainment, as always.
Tour the garden with a glass of wine.
Parking is free.
Tickets are available by clicking here.
Crazy Dory’s #1 hits keep coming. No one hit wonder here, either.
Reserve a spot now for our Autumn Harvest Wreath class. The flowers and the apples, all grown at Maple Rock, will be provided. Hors d’oeuvres and, of course, a glass of spirits. $65.00 plus tax gets you a great harvest wreath and a fun time. Want to reserve your space? Tickets can be purchased by clicking here.
See you at Maple Rock Gardens September 15th for Train Day. Come meet Dory and Farmer Ryan.
Join Dory September 22nd at High-Hand for a fun time.
No one hit wonders here.
See you at High-Hand Nursery.
Scott
P.S. With the holidays fast approaching, I’ve broken my sacred rule of not mentioning the word “holidays” until after Halloween, but for all of you early holiday shoppers, we deliver great gifts.
