Velma's Breeder's Roundtable
Presentation at the 1994 National Meeting
Our gardening
experience began in the late 30's when we owned our first home. Russ bought me a rose plant for Mother's Day. He carefully planted it for me, and guess what…. it didn’t
grow. So it was appropriately
replaced by the store (Sears). That one didn’t
grow either!
So, said I:
We shall go to the library and get some reading material – and so we
did. Russ, being the avid reader, digested several
books on roses and the bug really bit. We ordered
rose catalogs and bought roses - maybe 15 or 20, and Russ maintained
the rose garden, hilling them up in the fall and down in the spring, spraying
and dusting according to directions.
Then, as our
family had grown by four, we moved. This new
home had plenty of room on the inside as well as the outside. But it also had more than ample shade, which was not to
the liking of the roses. So we changed our gardening
to azaleas. And then, slowly but surely, to rhododendron. About that time, a co-worker of Russ's who owned property
in the Pennsylvania mountains said we could have all the rhododendrons
we wanted. Of course, we took him up on this offer
and added untold Maximums (Maximi ???) to our property.
About that
time, Russ read about the American Rhododendron Society
and, of course, we joined. That led to new
sources and acquaintances with other folks who shared our blossoming
interest in rhododendron. We were among the dozen
or so people who founded the New Jersey Chapter. It
was a real privilege to have Guy Nearing among our membership. The Knippenbergs were also members.
About this
time the Saturday Evening Post ran an article entitled "The Flowering
Forest of Joseph B. Gable". So we visited the Gables that Spring and every Spring
for many more years, always buying anything and everything available!
During these
early years Warren Baldsiefen was rooting rhododendrons from Gable
& Nearing. And on one occasion, Gable took
a load of plants to Warren's and stopped by our place on his way home. Our Blue Ridge was in full bloom at the time and Gable
was really impressed. Fortunately, we had an
extra and it was our pleasure to give it to him!
Sooner than
later, we started hybridizing. We really had
no particular goal, although eventually yellow became the goal. Most of the yellows on the market were hopelessly tender. Russ built a concrete block enclosure to give a few plants
winter protection. But it was many a year before we
saw a yellow seedling bloom.
As retirement
came, we relocated to the temperate mountains of Western
North Carolina and a 176 acre property in Cedar Mountain.
We were fortunate in being able to ship many, many seedlings and small
plants by way of a truck that had been bringing plants north and returning
empty. The plants liked the NC climate with plentiful rainfall and milder
winters. One winter, however, was unforgettable: after a warm February
and March, the temperature dropped to 12 degrees on March 29th. That created lots of extra space in the beds, and some
of them were combined.
We continued
our hybridizing until 1985. Russ kept all the
records of crosses and what was in which planting bed. He also took care of the pollen. The plants were listed
by name and the number of the bed in which they were planted. We never put a name on a plant until it had proven
itself thru a number of years (Editor’s Note: There are 7 registered Haag
Hybrids: Blue Ridge, Carolina Moon, Great Smoky, Cloud Nine, Golden Delicious,
Good Fortune and White Water North Carolina).
In the first
years over 100 beds were planted with approximately 100 plants in each
bed. We later emptied 25 of these beds and replanted. Some of these plants are worth propagating including
one which is going to be a tree. It has 4" florets,
11 to the truss. I call it Lily Tree because the
floret looks like a lily and one parent is a tree.
There are also
a number of yellows and, perhaps, some are worth propagating. Many of the last to actually bloom have never been tagged
as to identity. Someone might possibly like
this job.
All in all,
we must have planted out almost 16,000 of the seedlings. What a pleasure it was. I'm sure
we might have been more selective in our crosses, but we enjoyed what
we were doing.
Velma Haag’s
own story as told to Ed Collins, Southeast Chapter President, ARS.
Ed: Jackpot Winner was grown and named by Weldon
Delp from seed obtained from the Haags. There are many plants
worthy of naming and Velma has selected some for further study that might
be named after her and Russ. Although
Velma and Russ are well known for the many rhododendron hybrids they
produced, they should also be known for their collection of azaleas and
native plants. Seeds of various Trilliums and Lady Slippers, as well
as many other plants, are gathered annually and sown throughout the
property. Many knowledgeable people have commented that the Shortia at
the Haag property is the most extensive they have ever seem outside of
a nursery or arboretum. In addition to all of the rhododendrons, RhodoGardens
is truly a wildflower paradise.
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