"The Chinese Grab Bag

Although a number of interesting plants have entered cultivation in
North America and elsewhere via Chen Yi's nursery, it is widely
thought that some of the material is collected in the wild. I have
heard people justify this with the argument that so many plants are
endangered by wild collecting for Chinese herbalism that taking a few
for horticulture is relatively benign. That doesn't seem like a valid
argument to me.

Moreover, most people who have received plants originating with Chen
Yi have found that many of them are misidentified, and that the same
species can be sent under several different names. The only ones I
ever bought were Fritillaria species obtained through a middleman in
the UK, and they were almost all misnamed, though I did end up with
viable bulbs of two species (not the five I paid for, and not with
the names they came under).

Jim McClements wrote an article on his Chen Yi acquisitions (he
specializes in woodland plants) and titled it "The Chinese Grab Bag."
He acknowledged, however, that a couple of items from the grab bag
were extremely good!

Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA

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