Names! Or, never a good memory

[digitS']

I have a story on the Tendergreen that I can share but won't hijack @heirloomgal 's thread since it is really about my poor memory and the need to write things down!

Greencrop bush beans were in my garden years ago. I liked them! But, didn't write down the name. Package gone, I came across Topcrop in a seed rack or catalog and bought those. Nope, not them.

Next I decided that maybe it was "tender" that I was remembering, not "crop." So, I bought some Tenderette bean seed. No. That wasn't them either!

The third time, a picture that I happened across gave me the proper clue -- Greencrop! You have to know that this was pre-internet, pre garden forums. These days, lots of my garden "records" are stored here. I thought that should help but now @heirloomgal and @Zeedman are talking about Tendergreen. Imagine if that name had popped up in front of me -- I probably would have gone off on yet another 12 months, down the garden path!

Years ago, it turned out that it didn't much matter. Greencrop in a Romano type green bean. DW had come along, she didn't like it ! And, there is only so much effort and garden space that can be allocated to each of our individual preferences.

Steve

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Sometimes it can be confusing

I recently wanted to order some Russian Netted cucumber seeds for next year. Baker Creek (where I got the last batch) no longer supplies it, so off to the general web I went. I spent several weeks trying to work things out because it looks like a LOT of sites mix Russian Netted (which is round) with Brown Russian (which is long) and with Little Potato (which is sort of in between and needs a hotter climate than the other two)

Or the mess I got into where someone translated Black from Krim (the tomato) back into Russian then mistranslated it back into English as Black Crimea (so one tomato type suddenly became another)

 

[Zeedman]

I have a story on the Tendergreen that I can share but won't hijack @heirloomgal 's thread since it is really about my poor memory and the need to write things down!

Greencrop bush beans were in my garden years ago. I liked them! But, didn't write down the name. Package gone, I came across Topcrop in a seed rack or catalog and bought those. Nope, not them.

Next I decided that maybe it was "tender" that I was remembering, not "crop." So, I bought some Tenderette bean seed. No. That wasn't them either!

The third time, a picture that I happened across gave me the proper clue -- Greencrop! You have to know that this was pre-internet, pre garden forums. These days, lots of my garden "records" are stored here. I thought that should help but now @heirloomgal and @Zeedman are talking about Tendergreen. Imagine if that name had popped up in front of me -- I probably would have gone off on yet another 12 months, down the garden path!

Years ago, it turned out that it didn't much matter. Greencrop in a Romano type green bean. DW had come along, she didn't like it ! And, there is only so much effort and garden space that can be allocated to each of our individual preferences.

Steve

Believe it or not, I went through the same experience after the first time I grew Tendergreen. In those years I was still buying new seed every year, throwing away the packages - and too often, forgetting what I grew. I then tried Greencrop by mistake (but didn't like it) as well as another "green" something which I've long since forgotten. When I finally found Tendergreen again, I saved the package as a backup to my too-often-fleeting memory.

 

[digitS']

you might be a gardener if ... there have been several stumbles along the garden path.

I had already looked at Tendergreen in this cultivar list website LINK While there, I checked Greencrop and was surprised by the "similar to" & "related to" information on other varieties.

I just made a list of the 8 of them and then tried to find seed for one that I thought interesting. No, not found - so I looked at the others, some are 30 years newer in their development. Only ONE could be easily found: Magnum.

Neither Highmowing nor Territorial said that it was related to Kentucky Wonder but both compared the flavor. That might be "it." I grew up eating Kentucky Wonder so if the flavor is similar, it's not surprising that I liked it.

More pronounced bean flavor is my preference and I'm fortunate that DW likes Rattlesnake dry beans in soup. I eat as many of those green as I can , then happily collect pods for seed. Teepees of Rattlesnake have been in my garden for years, now.. I like the soup, too!

Steve
having resistance from DW sometimes has been an okay thing

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Just remembered one I STILL haven't worked out.

There is a variety of ancient Chinese wine grape called "Lung Yen" (dragon's eye)*, (If you have ever been to China and tried the (rather inferior) wine called Great Wall, that's the grape it is made from.)

I have always been curious about getting a cutting of that grape and growing it myself (mostly to see if it's a matter of the Chinese not being good at grape wine making, or it simply being a crappy wine grape.)

The problem is that Lung Yen is also the name of a much more recognized Chinese fruit, what we in the west call longans or longyans (the brown skinned lychee relative). So trying to find information on the grape invariably end up with confusion with the fruit.

*Other Chinese wine grape varieties include the Chicken Heart and the Cow's Nipple.

 

[heirloomgal]

I have a story on the Tendergreen that I can share but won't hijack @heirloomgal 's thread since it is really about my poor memory and the need to write things down!

Greencrop bush beans were in my garden years ago. I liked them! But, didn't write down the name. Package gone, I came across Topcrop in a seed rack or catalog and bought those. Nope, not them.

Next I decided that maybe it was "tender" that I was remembering, not "crop." So, I bought some Tenderette bean seed. No. That wasn't them either!

The third time, a picture that I happened across gave me the proper clue -- Greencrop! You have to know that this was pre-internet, pre garden forums. These days, lots of my garden "records" are stored here. I thought that should help but now @heirloomgal and @Zeedman are talking about Tendergreen. Imagine if that name had popped up in front of me -- I probably would have gone off on yet another 12 months, down the garden path!

Years ago, it turned out that it didn't much matter. Greencrop in a Romano type green bean. DW had come along, she didn't like it ! And, there is only so much effort and garden space that can be allocated to each of our individual preferences.

Steve

@digitS' You can hijack my thread anytime I enjoy when people bounce off a post in any kind of direction! Bounce away!!

But it's funny you mention this point though because I'm usually okay at remembering the bean names I plant in a season, but this year a couple of the names I just kept messing up, or couldn't remember and had to search up again and again to keep it straight. I don't think it was my fault, it was the beans' fault! Tendergreen, Tendercrop, Topcrop, Greencrop. ...oh man I just kept getting all boggled up with those names. It was so extreme it was kind of funny. But those names are not distinctive, so non descript and bland. Nothing like, 'Frizzy Headed Drunken Woman' leaf lettuce. Now THAT is a name I can remember. All the more reason I like the heirlooms - great, memorable names.