Boise, Idaho — Mother's Day (May 11) is fast approaching. Wondering what to get mom this year? Robert Hunt, Boise, Idaho, horticulturist and owner of Name a Flower, has a different gift you might consider. Hunt has launched a company that immortalizes mothers - and others - with her own flower. Literally. Hunt is breeding gladioli. He's got 200 new varieties, a couple thousand more on the way, all waiting to be named.
Hunt said he's been mad about glads since he was a kid.
"I grew up in Baker City, Ore. A man lived a couple blocks from church and every week in the summer he had a bouquet of orange glads that he brought to church. I thought that was so neat." The idea for the company, though, comes from Hunt's sister, Marie. She told Hunt many years ago that if he ever came up with a new rose, she'd love to have it named after her. She doesn't mind that the flower Hunt successfully hybridized was a gladiolus instead of a rose. Which did she choose? "She's still waiting - she hasn't picked one yet," Hunt said.
It takes Hunt about five years to develop a new glad through hybridization. He takes pollen from one flower, puts it on another and crosses his fingers. Sometimes he gets lucky and - a new glad is born.
Hunt chose to work with glads because they have 32 sets of chromosomes, making it possible to create thousands of unique variations of colors and shapes.
Once he's grown the flower, Hunt takes a photo while it's in bloom. The photo is posted on the Web site, www.nameyourflower.com, where you can choose the as yet unnamed posy of your choice and give it a name.
The flower package ranges from $199 to $249. You get a bag of your glad's corms, a framed photo, certificate of authenticity, and instructions for planting, growing and harvesting the corms for the next year, so you can keep your flowers in the family - all inside a nifty wooden box.
"The one thing I can guarantee - I guarantee they've never had anything like this before," Hunt said. "They will be the only person in the entire world that has this flower."
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