Does anyone have an old Miller’s Nursery catalog from 1990’s I could purchase from you? Or can you tell me some heirloom apple varieties that Miller’s sold in the 90’s?
Friends bought 25 apple trees, mostly heirlooms, from Miller’s Nursery NY around 1998 but they have lost the ID tags on all of them. I really want to ID the trees to see which ones are getting fireblight and which ones are not getting blight, because many are growing disease free, unsprayed here in Fireblight Central!
Seeing what trees MIller sold in 1990’s will narrow down the ID job.
Miller has since merged with Stark and I can’t find any Miller catalog online.
I don’t have any old catalogs, but it looks like the Smithsonian maintains quite a collection and is about and hour away from you. If all else fails, maybe you can make an appointment for when you plan to be in Washington to see the collection?
This doesn’t help you any, but I ran into this and thought it was interesting. Cornell also has a large collection, started by LH Bailey in 1888 and maintained by his daughter for 70+ years until her death in 1983. LH Bailey was pretty busy in that time- after becoming a bigwig at Cornell, he quit, traveled the world for 20+ years collecting 140,000 plants, which he then donated to Cornell and started a new department.
Clark- Thanks for link. Do you know how to access a catalog on that site? I see they have some Miller’s catalogs but they are not clickable. Can’t tell how the site works.
I’m not sure Hambone some are readable in the Library by clicking this link Victory Horticulture Reference Library Policy Page - SaveSeeds.org and then clicking catalog pages which are accessible and others are not there so I would email them and let them know what you are looking for.
Update: Success! @BobVance’s Smithsonian link lead me eventually to New York Botanic Garden whose librarian was exceptionally helpful and sent me the apple catalog pages in one day! Now begins the process of using Miller’s Nursery catalog to identify some 25 to 30 apple trees. Some clues will be pretty obvious as I already see at least four of the heirloom varieties that are fireblight magnets, should be easy to spot, if they’re even still alive. And there’s one apple in the orchard that has yet to bear in ten years- almost surely Spi-Gold or Northern Spy. This will be fun.
Great followup. I am so glad they had the catalog. I wish I would have kept those old catalogs from years ago. I really enjoyed getting the Miller Bros catalogs. I had two of their apple trees years ago but I moved from that house to another house that I could not have fruit trees. The new owner took out all the fruit trees I planted. Ugggg
Their “Canandaigua Quality” trees were great.
I enjoyed their catalogs and bought cherries and apples from them. Bountiful Ridge in Maryland also had a nice catalog back in the '90s. My first trees came from Stark Bros with Compact Redhaven and July Elberta planted when I was in high school. Had a book named Growing Dwarf Fruit Trees that was my guide back then. I use to keep all my old catalogs in file boxes but they burned up in a house fire eleven years ago. I am one of those types who keep books and magazines looking like new even when well read. My wife is the opposite. She drives me nuts putting drinks on books and mags instead of using a coaster!
Speaking of Bountiful Ridge. Online free and also on Amazon as reprints are select years of their catalog and planting guide. Interesting to see sports or improved selections of trees that don’t seem to be available anymore. I would like to find their “Bountiful Improved Winesap” as big as Staymans from the 1969 catalog.
Nice to see their catalog pages again. I will look to see if I can find some of those. Looking at those pages brings back some great memories of rummaging and marking through their catalogs during the winter months.
