Dave, indeed the blue colour of 'Edith' is outstanding.
Another interesting thing is that it don't need to be staked when it's young, it develops an good habit from the beginning on.
The plant is found as a seedling by the Barabits Nursery, Sopron, Hungary.

i have seen an 8 footer at gee's ....

if any but the hard.. hard.. hardcore could tell it apart from hoopsi.. or thomsen... good for them ...

as for my eye.. they all look the same ...

in other words ... if you have one.. you really dont need the newer and supposedly improved one ... unless you have 100 acres.. and an unlimited budget ...

perhaps in 25 or 50 years... a mature specimen will show differences.. but for most of us.. its moot

ken

'Hoopsii' is a very difficult one to get it in a good shape when the plant is at a young age, you have to cut it several times to get it in a nice full plant.
'Edith' have a nice and full habit by itself and don't need to be staked, it's an easy plant to grow.

Hi Edwin,

The correct name is 'Edit'. Dr. Barabits named it for his wife and that was how she spelled her name. It is an exceptional plant.

Bob

Thanks Bob for this info.
Then I received this plant in the past under the wrong spelled name, I'll change it in my own list.

If Edit was indeed the intended name, that does not necessarily make it the accepted name. EDITH has been well documented and published. There is just not enough evidence to warrant a change to Edit.

Dave,this is the color i was talking about on my Piccea Pungens'Blue moon',anice blue without the silvery cast.Nice plant Dave. Joe

I checked the right name in "The Barabits Elemér Life Monument" which is in the back of the blue book named "Conifers Treasery of the world" written by Mesterházy Zsolt, Budapest, Hungary 1995 and it mentioned that it is written as 'Edith'.
This plant is found in 1975 and won a silver medal at the Flora Nova Exhibition in 1990.
So "Edith" it must be.

Thanks Edwin, this one has been dragging on for far too long, I hope you guys in the States will now accept the name 'Edith' ?

Alright. I'll use 'Edith' from now on despite my ultimate trust in Bob.

Dax

Was Dr. Barabits wife name spelled Edit or Edith?

Who knows for sure?

I would tend to go with the correct spelling of her name. Why would he misspell her name on a cultivar named after her.

Dave

This maybe looks like a case of the application of thorough well thought out rules ending in a somewhat silly conclusion, if indeed Dr. Barabit's wife's name is Edit and not Edith. I don't know for sure about the naming rules of conifer cultivars, but I do know the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature allows for corrections to be made when spelling mistakes are made in the first published name of a species. Perhaps a similar rule is in place or should be in place with conifer cultivar names?

After a brief amount of searching I found this old thread where Dr. Barabit's wife's name is stated as Erszebet by Bob, but Dr. Barabits calls her Edit and Bob also says Dr. Barabits said that is the correct name of the cultivar. So, it looks to me that Edit is the correct name if that's what the originator says it is.

You can read about and see photos of Bob Finchan's visit with Dr. Barabits here

I hope all of this referencing of your past comments bobfinchan, is OK with you.

Also the Conifer Illustrated Encyclopedia written by D. van Gelderen and D. van Hoey-Smith mentioned 'Edith' as the cultivarname.

My strongest evidance is the Bömer Nursery from Zundert, Holland who introduced a lot of the Barabits selections into Holland and the rest of Europe.
They mentioned at their stocklist 'Edith' as the cultivarname.

Coniferjoy and ...
Not sure you found a solution at your problem, but if I'm well remember,I spoke with Zsolt Mesterhazy when he visit me some years ago. And the correct name is : EDIT but he make a error itself in his book.
Clément

Here is a listing by Dr. Elemer Barabits and the correct name is Picea pungens 'EDITH' hit the link, click on stores, and scroll the conifers section.

Here is a link that might be useful: ALSÓTEKERESI NURSERY LTD.

All I wanted to do was talk about the color of this exceptional cultivar.

I don't suppose the Edit/Edith controversy will ever be settled.

I am still not swayed one way or the other. In a frank manner of speaking...I don't give a rats ass either.

Dave

Dave, we did talk about the nice colour and it's very nice habit, but also the good written name is very important to you to known, even when you do like you don't care about it.
As you mentioned by yourself, you care a bit which name is right because a rats as is not so big ;0)

Maybe I should have said pachyderms arss. That should cover it.

The bottom line: Dr. Barabits calls her Edit and Bob also says Dr. Barabits said that is the correct name of the cultivar.

What else is there to talk about...Barabits said that is the correct name of the cultivar. What does he call her...Edit...We should honor and respect what both gentleman said and get it right.

Most resource conifer books I read are incorrect in any number of ways. A fact that is not disputed. So much for reference material...good to a point but nothing I would stake my life on.

I think one of those nursery's changed the name for whatever reason I don't know.

Dave

Maybe he got fed up with everyone wanting to Edit her name?

;-)

THE FINAL EVIDANCE IS HERE THAT 'EDITH' IS THE TRUE NAME:

This morning I wrote an e-mail to David Bömer from which his parents had a good contact with the Barabits family in the past.
I asked him for some stronger evidance to make it sure that 'Edith' is the name that must be written.
He just called me and said 'Edith' is the name because David's parents found an old postcard which was signed with EDITH.
Furthur information is that Edith Barabits was from Austria were they write her name this way.

SO 'EDITH' IT MUST BE!!!

I emeailed Zsolt Mesterhazy about ths name a few days ago. Accordng to hs reply, Dr. Barabits never publshed the name and the first date of publication was 1990 by a Dutch Nursery.

Unfortunately this us what sometimes happens when a plant is shared before its name has been published with a good description.

Everythng points to 'Edith' being the correct name, so I will be correcting it in my list. However, I will list ('Edit') as a synonym since he was very specific about that being the name he wanted and there are plants around with 'Edt' on their labels.

It's good to have plant detectives willing to track down correct names. It's unfortunate that Dr. Barabits lived in a country under Russian domination with many restrictions that prevented him from better contact with the west. He did some amazng things with limited resources.

We could call up the spirits and ask for the needles to drop on all the wrongly named plants... If it doesn't happen, then it surely doesn't matter all that much. T.

Bob, well said. Thanks.

Have to say I admire both of you for your passion not only with plants but for doing the nearly impossible - trying to keep the nomenclature strait. Many of us just don't have the resources and hope what we collect, or purchase is the right plant and spelled correctly.

For a minute there I thought it was going to be a case of--
and in the west corner wearing the red, white and blue trunks --- and in the east corner wearing the blue, white and red trunks.....

One down and how many more to go??
Keep up the great work guys.

Darren

Dear Friends,
finally I found this thread. I know yet why Bob asked me last summer about 'Edit'

Since that time I joined to GW.

The real name of the wife of Barabits is Edit. She is a hungarian lady, slowly at 90. She has also a hungarian christ name, is usual in this country. I know the same time, that her name has an english pure meaning, like editing a book. For foreigners this could cause problems.

The cultivar belong to the few plants, which were introduced to the market, before I published the Barabits Life Monument in 1995. This is a prize holder in Holland, where it was named as Edith by HJ van de Laar in 1990. I was also thinking about, how to make the best, and finally decided. Let's have a name with "h" for international use, as of from the 1990 start to avoid misspellings in the world, meanwhile she is Edit for all, who knows her.

I gave some new photos of this plant in the recent "Barabits Life Monument Gallery".

It seemed me a little bit strange, that on the other end of the world this question could be important till the last days. Discovering the Jerry Morris conifer world we got a new "mother" file. Jerry has a Pinus ponderosa 'Margaret', which was named in any sources before Margarette, Marguerite, Margarite and any further possible variations, till Nate gave the news, this one is named to honour of the mother of Rich Eyre, who "Margaret" is.

I think wives, mothers, daughters have always a nice role in the cultivar naming, as they often give their names to plants - by the breeders, who have loved younger or elder ladies in their life. Great idea is that, and very human.

Thanks for the interest you all

Zsolt

Zsolt, did you ever met Mrs. Barabits in person or did you receive a Christmas card in the past from here?

Edwin, you are funny today
Between 1984 and 2001 we met just about 25 times. Lady Edit lived in the same house as Barabits, and usually she opened the door.

This photo comes of Bob Fincham 1999 www.coenosium.com, as we visited Mr. Honemann's stock garden together in Burgenland/Austria.
{{gwi:742122}}

Lady Edit, Barabits, Mr. Neményi, Herr Honemann, Bob and me.
It was a great joy always, as she has shown your Christmas cards...

Zsolt