Naming and distribution.
From 'Aafje' to 'Zyzy' the naming of Herman goes for his cultivars.
Herman himself thinks that fuchsias have something feminine because of their graceful appearance and that they should have female names, or names that refer to or have to do with them like perfumes. But do you want to realize that with so many new cultivars, with a list of registrations with the AFS in which almost all women's names have already been used, then that is not easy and you do not occasionally get away from something else.
'Dana Jolie'
With some creativity, Herman succeeded in coming up with new names that related to the appearance of the plant, but there are also plants that took names from Herman's private sphere and surroundings.
Below is an anthology from the creative box of Herman from which he drew when giving names to his new creations.
Anthology is actually "A collection of most beautiful and best pieces from poetry and prose", and here and there Herman refers to his naming.
Thus the cultivar 'François Villon' got its name because the plant in question was a pronounced pendant and the "Ballad of a hanged" was one of the works of this French poet from 1431.
François Villon
When filling out the AFS application form in 2004 of a new plant where the name of the newcomer had to be mentioned, Herman must have been very enchanted by his new creation, because he eventually added the name 'Poëtry' to the form.
Poëtry means, among other things, "fresh poem". The name 'Galadriel' comes from another genre of literature. 'Galadriel' is the elven queen from one of Tolkien's books. See fuchsias as fairies. You can not imagine it more fairytale.
'Twiggy' can still remember the elderly among us as the English supermodel from the sixties and seventies, a women's name for a new cultivar.
The underlying idea was therefore the growth of the cultivar.
Twiggy is the English expression for "full twigs".
'L'Ingènue' was apparently a novelty in which Herman came under the charm of his own creation. The name is the French expression for "female innocence".
With 'Nonchalance' can be meant nonchalant, but the name of a perfume is something feminine.
'Twiggy'
'Patricia Barnett' is named after a highly regarded Red Cross official in Wales.
In 'Mia van der Zee' Drs. M. van der Zee - Kruseman the biologist who traveled all over the Netherlands in the early eighties to collaborate with Ir. B. van der Haven to compile the first list of species and fuchsia cultivars present in the Netherlands.
'Aafje' was an attempt to be the first mention at the top of the various cultivar lists and for Zyzy it will have been tried for the bottom position on the list.
The hybridizer Bas Weeda named Herman in 1991 in a new cultivar of his hand.
De Graaf family in Fuchsias: 'Herman de Graaff' (left), 'Loeky' (middle) and 'Tsjiep' (right).
'Loeky' finds Herman himself his most beautiful plant and is named after his wife. Tsjiep nice and short was the pet name of his youngest son.
'Petite Fleur'
Just a few names are related to the appearance of the plants; 'Brightling' means clarity. This plant came out of the box with seedlings where the house cat had been tinkling just like 'Flirt'.
If that was a flirt of the cat with Herman, it would have failed, because Herman thought this fuchsia had a cheeky appearance, which is why he gave the name 'Flirt'.
The name 'Flim Flam', also a plant derived from the rumbling of the cat in the box with seedlings, indicates that the catdamage was apparently a waste wash for the cat because that is the translation of this English expression.
'Petit Point' is also a name that has a feminine background.
Herman thought the fine little flowers had something like a half-cross stitch that is used in embroidery.
Herman is a Jazz enthusiast, 'Mood Indigo' is named after a Jazz piece and if you look closely, the flowers have a hint of indigo in their colors.
Also the name 'Petite Fleur', for this plant with small flowers, owes its name to a Jazz piece by Sidney Bechet.
A dark red purple descendant of 'Foolke' got the nickname of Louis Armstrong and was called 'Satchmo'.
'Flirt'
And for the fuchsia lovers who have 'Hidden Treasure' in their collection, Herman gave this name; 'Hidden treasure' is the task to look at their plant to see which good quality is hidden in the plant.
The plant was approved in 1997 with praise from the jury. It happened in 1990 that a plant of Herman was approved with praise from the jury. The combination of this jury judgment and the appearance of the flowers of this plant, especially the sharply pointed sepals that form a pure cross horizontally outstanding, made Herman decide to give the plant the name 'Croix d'Honneur' or a cross.
What name should you give to your hundredth new cultivar? That probably will not have been such an easy task. Reportedly, the De Graaff family came up with the luminous idea to use our old name for a currency Florijn. A Florin is one hundred cents, so it became 'Gerharda's Florijn'. That 'Golden Jubilee' was the fiftieth cultivar of Herman speaks for itself.
His befriended overseas colleague of hybridizers honored Herman with the plants 'John Wright' and 'Edwin's Choice', for Edwin Goulding, who searched the plants as seedlings.
'Edwin's Choice'
... "Emperor of the beautiful empire of Insulinde that winds around the equator,
like a belt of emerald "...
The name 'Insulinde' that Herman gave his success triphylla cultivar is the pet name for the Dutch East Indies from the final speech of Multatuli's Max Havelaar.
Garoeda
If you look at Herman's list of plant names, you see that Herman gave more Indonesian names to his plants. Herman used to have a lot of childhood friends who had come over from Indonesia after the transfer of sovereignty and an old-uncle of Herman was formerly part of the Indian government.
If you compare the meaning of the names with the photographs and properties of the plants in question, Herman's line of thinking can be somewhat followed when assigning the names.
Garuda is a mythical creature in Hindu mythology that represents half a human being and half eagle.
Senang ~ means comfortable.
Tempo Doeloe ~ is a good old time.
Wajang ~ is shadow or shadow.
Goena Goena ~ means black magic from Indonesia.
Ketjil ~ means little one.
How do you get the cultivar name 'Piet Hein'? In the form of the long pointed curved sepals of this cultivar, Herman saw the shape of an enterhook, so this cultivar was named after the pirate Piet Hein. If you have not yet studied Frisian, the cultivar name 'Earrebarre' is Frisian for stork or lucky charm.
Cultivars whose flowerpipes and sepals show a somewhat trumpet-like appearance were appointed by Herman as 'Highland Pipes' the Scottish bagpipes, 'Northumbrian Pipes', to a bagpipe from a certain region from Scotland, 'Small Pipes', 'Maori Pipes', 'Uillean Pipes' and 'War Pipes'.
The sight of the outstanding trumpet-shaped flowers in the staggered bunches that hang downward indeed often evokes the association of the pipes that protrude from the bagpipes. All this indicates that Herman is a lover of bagpipe music. And that is indeed true. His hundredth new cultivar celebrated Herman with two Scottish pipers in his garden.
'Uillean Pipes'
Herman used to often make dialects under the title;
"From the Fuchsia kitchen". This resulted in the cultivar name 'Haute Cuisine'. The cultivar 'Summerdaffodil', which means summer daffodil, Brings us back to the family business of the bulb growers and hybridizers Fam. H. de Graaff and Sons.
At the bottom of the paper bags in which the flower bulbs used to be sent stood;
"Product of Holland" printed the title Herman still uses for his column in Fuchsiana. He also gave the name to one of his new cultivars.
A spade is called a graph in the dialect of the bulb region.
In the family arms of the family
de Graaff are two crossed spades and in the emblem and trademark of the flower bulb empire a golden spade was depicted that produced the cultivar name 'Golden Spade'.
As a final explanation of a name of one of Hermans' cultivars, 'Gerharda's Panache' remains one of the masterpieces from the collection of cultivars that produced Herman's work. According to the dictionary of "Van Dale" means Panache; Pluimbos and also proud allure. A better name for this very popular cultivar among enthusiasts and hybridizers is almost unthinkable.
Herman asked what his own preference is from all cultivars of his hand shows that there are several but that he divides them into categories. His most beautiful fuchsiacultivar is and remains for him one of the cultivars from his beginnings as fuchsia hybridizer 'Loeky' called the saucer-shaped cultivar after his wife.
'Shocking Blue'
'Grand Cru' comes in second place and the fast growing pantry hybrid 'Eruption' is for Herman third on the podium.
'Tsjiep' and 'Machu Picchu' are called Herman as the easiest cultivars.
'Small Pipes', 'Gerharda's Panache' and the other pantrihybrides are described by Herman as his most valuable cultivars, something that is understandable given the long history.
All Herman cultivars are, as it should be, registered in the register of the American Fuchsia Society. Something that Herman constantly promoted among his fellow hybridizers.
Herman was one of the people who made it possible to approve new cultivars at the time and he promoted it full of verve.
For years he was part of the Fuchsia committee of the Permanent Inspection Committee in Aalsmeer. Both as a member and also as the chairman of this committee, he and his colleagues approved more than a thousand new Dutch cultivars.
He initially also commissioned his own plants by this committee. Mutual rivalry in the inspection committee made him decide at one point that he would no longer have his plants inspected. Because of his long career in this committee and as a hybridizer, he had also gained enough knowledge and experience to be able to judge his own plants whether they brought something new and useful to the market for fuchsia enthusiasts.
'Zwarte Dit'
'Bohemienne'
If there is a Dutch hybridizer who has gained international name recognition with his Hybridizing products, but also as a hybridizer, that is Herman de Graaff. The many contacts he has with foreign hybridizers and enthusiasts indicate that Herman is regarded worldwide as a leading hybridizer and fuchsia expert. The French distinction mentioned in chapter 1 is an example of this.
At the time that the cuttings growers still just spent paper catalogs, you noticed that Herman's plants were listed in the catalogs almost immediately the year after the introduction. After the turnaround to the digital era, the familiarity and the related popularity of Herman's plants became even clearer. Worldwide you see pictured plants on the websites of nurseries and enthusiasts and are offered for sale. From New Zealand to Finland and from America to Japan, on all websites you will find cultivars such as' Greenpeace ',
' Vuurwerk', 'Gerharda's Panache', 'Machu Picchu', 'Minirose', 'Tsjiep', 'Insulinde' and 'Loeky ' against.
All plants that have established themselves just like cultivars like 'Beacon' and 'Koralle' that did more than 100 years ago and are still popular.
The characteristic of Herman to obtain different forms of appearance with certain basic crosses through input from other or more species, made sure that for every fuchsial lover something in the assortment of cultivars of Herman could be found that appealed to them.
Except for 'Ursula', almost every cultivar can still be found somewhere in a collection. At times you see on shows and on open garden days cultivars of Herman of which you think; "which was that" and, "oh yeah, I did not think it still existed".
In America, 'Pink Rain' was a topper right after he was introduced, but he still can not be ignored from the collections there.
In England the small-flowered cultivars like 'Tsjiep'. 'Galadriel' and 'Minirose' gradually became an integral part of the collections of fuchsia enthusiasts who cultivated incredibly beautiful and richly flowering plants there.
'Maori Pipes', 'Highland Pipes' and 'Northumbrian Pipes' are also very popular.
'Zulu King'
The cultivar 'Minirose' emerged as one of the best from a German study into suitable pot plants for professional cultivation. 'Minirose' is currently widely cultivated in professional cultivation in various countries and is now available everywhere in spring where bedding plants are offered.
After more than a hundred years, people in Germany and Austria have finally looked forward to the well-known triphylla cultivars 'Koralle' and 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt' that are traditionally used for all kinds of plantings. The propagation companies for the professional cultivation are now breeding the triphylla cultivar 'Insulinde' in large numbers. Whether it also lasts a hundred years? That will not happen to most of us, but it is of course nice to see 'Insulinde' appearing in flower boxes on streets, squares and in parks, literally a "Product of Holland" and "Hollands Glorie". .
'Gerharda's Apotheose'
The last cultivar of Herman came out in 2007.
Or Herman still hybridize? Surely.
Hybridizinging is something that is in you after so many years. You keep wondering things and want to try that out. Whether Herman adds one or more new cultivars to the fuchsia market that is currently being flooded with new cultivars, that is not likely or it must be something very special.
A yellow fuchsia as apotheosis perhaps? Who knows!
Considerations for the fuchsia hybridizers of the future.
~* ~
There are enough fuchsia cultivars. The only thing that fuchsia will be served with is the creation of new growth properties, colors and shapes. The only way to do this is to use species.
That will demand a lot of perseverance because the result is uncertain and remains dependent on the benevolence of
Lady Fortuna.
Lisse - January - 2017
Herman Jan de Graaff.
Read more on: 10 The cultivars of H. J. de Graaff.
Author: M.A. Soeters
Layout: S. van Schaik
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