Amana Orange

[dokutaaguriin]

Here is the description from Jeff Nekola's website:
Amana Orange
Good set of 5" rough, flattened orange fruits.
IL LO N 99 - AR BO B 98 ... (?) WI DA K 94
Named by Gary Staley ( Brandon, FL) for the Amana Colonies

Does anyone know if the seed came from the Amana colonies or someplace else?
Jeff

[carolyn137]

Jeff, I traced it back to 1989, which is as far as I wanted to go to see what Gary Staley said about it and he said," I named this for Amana, IA, large orange fruit" No, there's no indication from that comment of Gary's that it actually did come from the Amana colony farmers but I suppose that's always a possibility. But it seems to me that Gary would have said so if it had come from thenm OTOH, why would he chose Amana, IA to name a variety after?

And I see references for it back to 1987 so Gary must have been offering it back then as well. Edmund Brown got his from Charles Estep back in 1987 and I got mine from Edmund and was offering it all by myself in the 1993 Yearbook.

If I have time and the interest I can try going back further but it's really a bear finding anything pre-1986 b'c before 1986 varieties were not listed by color, they were listed by State and within state by SSE members, in alphabetical order, so you have to read and read, and read.......

Perhaps Jeff does not have the SSE Yearbooks that far back which is why he didn't mention the earlier folks who listed it. The only two folks who do have all those back Yearbooks are Craig and myself as far as I know.

[dokutaaguriin]

Hi Carolyn,
Thanks so much for the reply. I have been considering growing out Amana Orange just to see if it can keep up with Orange Heirloom and Kellogg's Breakfast; and, I have also been attracted to it after reading the history of the Amana Colonies. I wonder why Gary Staley would name it for the colonies???? What sort of connection would he have with colonies?????
The SSE information I posted was from Jeff Nekola's Heirloom Vegetables Tomatoes Archive, because I am not a member ......


Jeff

[carolyn137]

The SSE information I posted was from Jeff Nekola's Heirloom Vegetables Tomatoes Archive, because I am not a member ......


Yes, I know that Jeff. My point was that I don't think Jeff Nekola had the back SSE Yearbooks to trace back Amana Orange as far as I did. And above I also questioned why Gary Staley chose Amana, IA if it weren't from the Amana Colonies, but there's really no way to know. I know of no connection he had with them
based on his other SSE introductions.

I used to grow Amana Orange as my prime large orange variety until Kellogg's Breakfast came along. And then I stopped growing Amana Orange b'c to me KB was so much superior re taste and all else.