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Border protest draws dozens
s Dozens of people gathered to protest the Covid-19 travel require-
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ments for crossing the U.S./Canada border at Peace Arch State Park on
January 23. Photo by Grace McCarthy s Lynden resident Jill Janzen holds a “let families unite” sign at the border protest January 23. Janzen said
her family is separated by the U.S./Canada border requirements. Although she said she’s thankful for being able to see family at Peace Arch State Park, she said it’s not the same as being with family on Christmas. “We’re missing so many life events,” she said. “My son is getting married in June in Bellingham and we’re
not sure if any of our Canadian family can be there.” Photo by Grace McCarthy
ATHLETE H H H H H H
OF THE H MONTH Ryleigh Pitcher
Senior • Cheerleading
Ryleigh is a returning cheerleader and a team captain. This year she has continued to work hard and have a good attitude against all odds. She helps her teammates and encourages others every chance she gets. She exhibits strong leadership skills and always has a witty comment ready to boost spirits.
s Protestors gathered for about 20 minutes under the Peace Arch before walking across the park in a silent demonstration. Photo by Grace McCarthy
Recent commercial property sales include CJ’s Beach House and Loomis Hall building
Member of the Month
Sugar & Space
Number of staff: Just me, Wendy Dahl – I like to work one-on-one with clients.
How long in business: Sugar & Space became official on December 16, 2020.
Description of the business: Sugar & Space is a Professional Organizing Company. I help families by creating solutions to get and stay organized. This includes de-cluttering, space planning, and organizing.
How the business started: For years I’ve been helping friends and family organize bedrooms, kitchens, closets and craft rooms. The vicarious joy of seeing someone rediscover their own home got me thinking, “I should be doing this all the time.” And now I am.
Future goals: Help clients discover the life-changing feeling of living in a clutter-free and organized space, reduce frustration and stress by working together to reduce the chaos that fills up space, help create more time and space so that people can do more of what they love with the people they love.
Featured businesses are selected randomly from the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce membership.
This is a monthly feature sponsored by the Blaine Community Chamber of Commerce www.blainechamber.com • (360) 332-4544 • Join the chamber today ... membership has its privileges!
B y G race M c c arthy
Several notable commercial properties in Blaine and Birch Bay had a change of hands in December including the CJ’s Beach House property and the historic Loomis Hall building. This information has been compiled by the Whatcom County Assessor and Treasurer website and the Washington state Secretary of State website.
Birch Bay
Rhino Development LLC purchased the CJ’s Beach House property for $3.15 million. Rhino Development is owned by The Beach at Birch Bay owners – Kelly Koehn, Randall Sheriff and Peter Van Der Zalm – and Tonia Thrift and Duane Nelson.
The CJ’s Beach House property includes the 11,736-foot restaurant on Birch Bay Drive as well as the Sea Links Golf Course, which is behind the building. The sale also included 317 feet of waterfront property on Birch Bay Drive and two properties at 7853 and 7833 Blaine Road.
Koehn did not respond to requests for more information on plans for the CJ’s Beach House property.
Blaine
Erika and Jesse Creydt, of Touchstone Health Clinic, purchased the historic Loomis Hall building at 288 Martin Street for $1.4 million. The 14,013-squarefoot building was built in 1903 and houses the Touchstone Health Clinic, a mental health clinic owned by the Creydt family. The property is situated on .15 acres of land.
John Strode and Charlie Gilcrease purchased the building housing Jack Niemann’s Black Forest Steakhouse for $1.35 million. The two-story building, at 638 Peace Portal Drive, also houses Jones & Jones U.S. Custom Brokers, Air Safety Art and the former Nimbus Real Estate office, which has been dissolved and will soon be acquired by Ferndale’s Rockwood Realty. The 9,676-square-foot property includes a parking lot.
Strode, the former owner of the Loomis Hall building, said he decided to purchase the 638 Peace Portal Drive property when a potential buyer showed interest in purchasing the Loomis Hall building. Strode doesn’t plan to make any changes to his new Peace Portal Drive property, he said.
spOrts Girls wrestling places at final tournament before post-season competition, sports roundup
B y I an h aupt
Four Blaine girls wrestlers placed in their respective weight classes January 22 at the River Ridge Rumble in Lacey. Junior Genesis Vazquez took first at 110, sophomore Milania Rodriguez took third at 135, and sophomore Kristin Ward and junior Rayanne Mutchler took fourth at 140 and 235 pounds.
“I think we’ve come a long way from the beginning of the year,” head coach Damon Higgins said. “The girls have dedicated a lot of time and effort.”
Higgins has been the girls wrestling coach for the better part of 10 years, and he said he has an impressive group of girls this year. Starting the season with 18 girls, the team is now down to 14. He said in years past he’s had around five girls and some years even just a single wrestler.
But this year he has to limit how many he can bring to a tournament. He said he brought 10 girls to the River Ridge Rumble last weekend and eight competed.
The girls will move on to post-season competition next.
Higgins said he decided to pull the girls from the final regular season tournament due to the risk of getting Covid-19 ruining any post-season chances. He said due to Covid-19, the team has had only a fraction of outings as it would typically have in a normal season. This has limited the team’s growth, as there are fewer opportunities to compete, he said. However, the team is looking in good shape for the end of the season.
Higgins said several of the girls on the team could make it to state, and that it’s a matter of peaking at the right time and avoiding Covid-19 exposure. “And I think we are looking in good shape right now,” he said. Sports roundup
Boys basketball
The Borderites traveled to Mount Baker last week and beat the Mountaineers by a convincing 67-32. The boys had a home game scheduled for January 24 against Sultan that was canceled.
They were scheduled to play Squalicum at home January 26. Then they travel to Oak Harbor Thursday, January 27, and are back at home Tuesday, February 1, against Nooksack. All games are at 7:15 p.m.
The boys are 8-5 this season. Girls basketball
The Lady Borderites lost 5029 to Meridian on the road this weekend. The girls were scheduled to play at Squalicum January 26 at 7:35 p.m.
They then host Oak Harbor Friday, January 28, and travel to Nooksack Wednesday, February 2. Both games are at 7:15 p.m.
The girls are 4-8.
Boys wrestling
Boys varsity wrestling squared up against Lynden last week in a conference matchup. They then traveled to Quincy for a multischool tournament January 22. They were scheduled to face Meridian and Sehome at Meridian January 26 at 6 p.m.
s Mayako Pereira tries to pin her opponent at the River Ridge Rumble in Lacey on January 22. Courtesy photo
Combination Meals
School district plans to return to in-person learning next week, contingent on staffing, Granger says
B y I an h aupt
Blaine school district superintendent Christopher Granger said in a January 24 school board meeting that the district plans to return to in-person learning Monday, January 31, after all schools temporarily moved to remote learning this week. The district will reevaluate its Covid-19 case totals and staffing capabilities at the end of the week to determine whether it can return in-person on Monday, according to Ganger’s January 21 community message.
In his community message, Granger said over 450 students were absent each day last week, or more than 20 percent of each school’s student body. He also said staff absences had increased to more than 75 per day and 30 percent of those jobs were left unfilled by substitutes.
While not all those absences are positive Covid-19 cases, as students and staff are asked to stay home if they have any signs of illness, cases are surging across the district.
According to the school district’s Covid-19 dashboard, on it’s website, the district had a total of 118 reported Covid-19 cases from January 10 to January 16. The week before it had 64 cases. The district had yet to record last week’s case totals by press time, but communications director Lisa Moeller said those totals are expected to increase as more test results are reported.
In the school board meeting, Granger said the district’s nursing and administrative staff were testing an average of 150-200 people per day last week between the district’s PCR and rapid testing. “We were just at a breaking point,” he said about the efforts to keep students and staff in the building.
Granger said the decision to go remote for this four-day week was difficult to make but necessary due to the shortage of staff available.
“We are hoping that this small break will afford us an opportunity to get more staff healthy to work in the building,” he said. “It is impacting every department, from food service to transportation to teaching to secretarial and administrators. It was a very difficult decision.”
Testing is available this week on the north side of the middle school gym, across from H Street from the Boys and Girls Club, 10:30-11 a.m.
With staffing shortages in all schools and buildings, the district is looking for substitutes in all positions. Granger encourages anyone with an interest in education or who would like to lend a helping hand to reach out to the district’s human resources department.
Before the district made the call to move remote last week, some classes had already returned to remote learning.
Grades 6-8 were prepared to move to remote learning January 21 along with six Blaine Primary School and eight Blaine Elementary School classrooms. Several more classrooms and grade levels were being monitored for a potential move to remote learning as well, Granger wrote, and that every family should prepare for a temporary move to remote learning.
The next day Granger announced the entire district would be moving remote temporarily.
“While the Omicron variant is not causing as many instances of serious illness, and that many people are recovering quickly, I am also aware that not all of our families are having that experience,” Granger said in his January 20 message. “Above all things, we want our students, staff and their families to be healthy and happy. We are wishing all those who are ill a very speedy recovery.”
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Atwood Farm Brewery releases flood relief stout
B y I an h aupt
Those who buy Atwood Farm Brewery’s new raspberry stout will be giving 90 percent of their money to flood relief.
Atwood Farm Brewery, on Sweet Road, announced January 21 that it will donate 90 percent of the gross sales of its new brew to the Whatcom Community Foundation’s Resilience Fund, a disaster response fund for those impacted by the November flood events.
Over 500 people were displaced and millions of dollars of damages were incurred last November when the Nooksack River overflowed its banks, leaving much of eastern Whatcom County with standing water. It also left many wondering how they could help.
Atwood brewer and co-owner Josh Smith was one of them. When he and his partner were discussing how they could help with the flooding relief, she figured they should stick to what they know best.
“In the face of disaster and tragedy, What can I do to help?’ is a question many of us ask,” he said in the January 21 announcement. “Everyone has a different answer, based on their own capabilities, physically, financially or otherwise. Within our own capabilities, this beer is our very small contribution to helping folks in the parts of Whatcom County most affected by the flooding,”
When Smith got the idea to make a flood relief beer, he knew he wanted to highlight a local ingredient, particularly one grown in eastern Whatcom County. “We tried to keep it as local as possible,” he said in a phone interview. “We knew we would use raspberries, and given the time of year we thought a stout would be the best fit. And raspberries work well with stouts.”
The Flood Siren, a Belgian-style stout brewed with raspberries, is made with 100 percent local berries from Clark’s Berry Farm in Lynden, just 12 miles east of the brewery. The beer is also brewed with 100 percent local hops from Bredenhof Hop Farms in Chilliwack, B.C., and 96 percent barley malts from Skagit Valley Malting.
Atwood Farm is a small, family farm that grows ingredients for the on-site brewery. It was established in 2016. The brewery produces unique ales inspired by French and Belgian farmhouse brewing traditions.
The brewery’s website says it doesn’t brew IPAs, or at least not at the farm, but they have as limited release projects in collaboration with other breweries.
“We don’t have any hard feelings against IPAs, they can be great beers, but they just do not fit neatly into our brewing philosophy or style portfolio very well,” the website says. “While we do brew some hoppier beers, we are much more interested in exploring the nuances of malt, yeast and adjunct driven flavors and aromas at our brewery. Could we offer you a balanced pale ale, or a nice farmhouse or sour ale instead?”
The brewery saw a large decrease in sales in 2020 due to the pandemic, which forced Smith to learn how to can beers as a way to help sales.
Usually distributed in bottles, Smith said they were fighting for shelf space in stores. With most breweries canning beers nowadays, he said learning to adapt helped sales in 2021. He said he will continue to bottle his beers since that is how the beers they brew are traditionally sold. “Cans just seem to be what consumers want these days,” he said. “And the goal is to sell beer.”
Atwood also received $10,000 in grant money from the Working Washington Border Business Relief Program, which Smith said really helped.
The brewery is open from noon to 3 p.m. on most Saturdays to buy cans, bottles and merchandise. Customers can also buy beer online and pick it up on Saturdays or by appointment.
Smith said at some point he would like to open up a bar or taproom but the right situation hasn’t presented itself yet. “I would love to have a place for people to come sit down and drink our beer.”
For more information or to place an order, visit atwoodales.com.
s Cans of the new Flood Siren. Ninety percent of its sales will be donated to the county’s Resilience Fund. Photo by Ian Haupt s Atwood Farm Brewery co-owner Josh Smith in the Sweet Road brewery where he’s been brewing beers since 2016. Photo by Ian Haupt
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Here comes the 100th Concert Celebration, page 11
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ECRWSS PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 14 Point Roberts, WA 98281 Postal Patron Local37 YEARS
B y M eg O ls O n
Whatcom County Council has approved changes to county code that will eliminate exemptions to mandatory garbage pickup in Point Roberts.
At their June 5 meeting, council heard from an almost evenly split 15 community members on the proposal, which would establish a mandatory minimum service level of a 32-gallon can of garbage to be picked up twice-monthly and billed through the property tax roll.
Opponents of the proposal cited a number of reasons for their opposition, primarily that the minimum service level was too high. “This exceeds the needs of 80 percent of those surveyed (in a 2016 online survey sponsored by the county solid waste division) who self-haul or use tags,” Kimberly Butts said. Ken Calder, also opposed to the changes, submitted a petition signed by 364 seas Back in 1976, a group of civic-minded people got together to plan a 4th of July celebration, the first since 1916. On June 20, they had a reunion at Ruby White’s house. See story, page 16. Standing, from l.: Fred DeHaan, Rosy Negron, Carla Scherer, Pauli DeHaan, George Scherer, Pat Jorgensen, Doreen Peltier. Seated: Norma Peltier, Ruby White, Kris Manning. Photo by Shelley Damewoodsonal and full-time residents asking that council delay the decision until September to allow a recently formed solid waste subcommittee of the Point Roberts Commu- Unity Care NW decides against renewing clinic contract nity Advisory Committee to continue to look at the issue.
Those in favor of the change as well as county staff pointed out that PRCAC had been pondering the garbage collection B y M eg O ls O n for over two years, held numerous public meetings, sponsored an online survey and and P at g ru BB sent out a mailer.
“There have been numerous opportunities for people to put in their two cents’ worth,” Arthur Reber said. “This process has been very thorough and collaborative,” said taxpayers’ association president Mark Online Robbins. Chamber of commerce president allpointbulletin.com Dee Gough said her association also supported the proposal, agreeing that mandafacebook.com/allpointbulletin tory trash pickup was the obvious solution to the perennial problem of dumping gar- Inside bage on the roadsides. Classifieds ........................................ 20 Jeff Hegedus with the Whatcom County Health Department said by establishing a Coming Up ...................................... 19 mandatory minimum service level for all Garden ............................................. 15 developed properties, as determined by Library ............................................ 18 which properties have a water connection, Obituaries ........................................ 22 it would lead to vendor stability because Opinion .............................................. 4 more users would support the system. Seniors ............................................ 18 (See Garbage, page 7) Tides ................................................ 10
Unity Care NW is done with the Point Roberts clinic. Citing declining use, a disproportionate (See Hospital, page 8) administrative burden and “community turmoil,” the board of directors of the non-profit health care provider voted at its June 25 meeting to discontinue the contract to operate the Point Roberts Clinic.
Notice was delivered to the Point Roberts hospital district on June 26 that Unity Care NW would end its contract to provide services on the Point as of December 31, 2018, but would provide services on a month-to-month basis if needed until June 30, 2019 and help with a possible transition to an alternative service provider. According to the June 25 resolution, the Point Roberts Clinic does not fit with the other clinics Unity Care NW operates in Ferndale and Bellingham, which it described as “patient centered medical homes.” Close to half of the visits to the Point Roberts clinic are for urgent care, and not for primary medical care,
Cites client base and “increasing according to Unity Care. community turmoil” The number of people being served at the Point Roberts Clinic, as well as the number of visits, have been declining, according to the resolution. The number of visits per year shrank from 1176 to 1033 between 2015 and 2017, which is de-
Arts and music fest makes a comeback
B y M eg O ls O n
“The Point Roberts Arts and Music Festival is back on the water,” says Arts Foundation founder and festival organizer Craig Jacks.
After being put on the shelf for a year, the festival will be back for its 23rd year, running three weekends in August. Kiniski’s Reef Tavern is partnering with the foundation, offering a location, planning assistance and funds for this year’s event. “We decided to make it longer so more people can enjoy it,” said tavern manager Allison Calder. The first weekend (See Arts & Music, page 14)
BEGIN THE DAY AT THE Community Center 1437 Gulf Rd. Pancake Breakfast 7:15-11:15 am PREP benefit Flag Raising Ceremony 11:30 am featuring PR Winds
September 9 - 15, 2021 Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay FREE
HHHECRWSSHHH Postal Customer PRSRT STD IN THIS Former BHS student Borderite sports U. S. Postage PAID ISSUE wins big with tuba, page 5 are back, page 7 Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Discover Birch Bay Days brings community fun
Point Roberts July 4 Happy Birthday USA s Birch Bay’s seaside festival offered another weekend of family fun September 3-5. The Birch Bay Chamber of Commerce hosted the fun-filled event, with help from Blaine-Birch Bay Park and Recreation District 2 and Friends of Birch Bay Library. Attendees enjoyed PARADE STARTS AT 12 NOON along Gulf Rd. from Marine Dr. to Tyee Dr. AFTER PARADE FAMILY ACTIVITIES: H Breakwaters Bar & Grill at Point Roberts Marina. H Kiniski’s Reef Tavern activities such as a pancake breakfast, outdoor kid games and rubber duck derby. More photos on page 16. Photo by Chuck Kinzer/CKimageart.com FIREWORKS: POINT ROBERTS MARINA AT 10:30 PM INSIDE Coming Up .... . Classifieds ..... . Letters ......... Police......... . Sports ......... Tides ......... . 14 11 . 4 14 . 7 14 TheNorthernLight @TNLreporter @TheNorthernLightNews TheNorthernLight.com
Blaine featured in new novel, page 10 Free financial literacy class offered in Blaine
B y g race M c c arthy
Over a year-and-a-half after the U.S./ Canada border closure and Blaine mailbox stores wait patiently for the return of loyal Canadian customers, all while they’ve settled into an adapted business routine.
Mail Boxes International owner Brant Baron said his parcel store has changed its business strategy to stay busy during the border closure.
To deal with parcels yet to be picked up, the H Street business rented a 4,800-squarefoot warehouse in September 2020 that allowed it to store over 20,000 boxes awaiting cross-border customers.
“We used up all of the creativity we had to maximize the space we had, which is what prompted renting the warehouse,” Baron said.
Baron and other mailbox operators are mostly catering to Canadian companies that need products from the U.S. forwarded. Although business has been better, he emphasized his situation is not detrimental and he has leaned into his faith and fo-
Blaine mailbox stores use creativity as they wait for the U.S. to open Canada border
cused on what he can control. Todd Robinson, Security Mail Services manager, echoed Baron’s sentiments. The last year-and-a-half has been hard but with boxes stacked high around him, he said he’s in a much better place than he would have predicted. “When [the border] first closed down, I would have never anticipated being closed this long. I thought three months, maybe, tops,” Robinson said. “I’m pleased with (See Box stores, page 2) B y e M ily F eek
Sales of single-use plastic bags will be banned in Washington state beginning on October 1 after governor Jay Inslee rescinded the proclamation delaying the original January 1, 2021 start date.
The ban prohibits the sale of single-use plastic bags for grocery stores, restaurants, small vendors and retail businesses, according to a department of ecology (DOE) press release. Instead of using these bags, businesses can either sell customers bags that are compliant with the ban or customers can bring reusable bags.
Stores can sell paper bags or more durable plastic bags for eight cents. The eight-cent charge, mandated by law, is not a tax, but is kept by the merchant both to encourage customers to bring their own bags and to account for the increased cost of compliant bags.
While the ban goes into effect on October 1, businesses can implement changes sooner, said Dave Bennett, DOE solid waste management program spokesperson.
B y g race M c c arthy
(See Financial classes, page 4)
Single-use plastic bags ban starts October 1
“Nothing is preventing a business from charging a fee and using compliant bags right now,” Bennett said. “We encourage those businesses to do that and start making those changes now.” The bag ban is intended to cut down on pollution caused by plastic bags, which are difficult to recycle and can clog recycling sorting machines, according to the DOE. In addition to the ban, Inslee signed a new state law regarding plastics use and (See Plastic bags, page 4)
If you struggle to balance a healthy budget, local nonprofits are here to help.
Financial literacy nonprofit Whatcom Dream will offer six money management classes from Tuesday, September 28 until Tuesday, November 2 at the new Community Assistance Program (CAP) building, 508 G Street. Classes will be held 6:307:30 p.m. every Tuesday.
Whatcom Dream is a nonprofit that started in Bellingham in 1999 to educate residents struggling with finances. The nonprofit’s founders realized the reason why their working low-income neighbors remained in poverty was because they didn’t know how to manage money properly, said Kevin Stray, a Whatcom Dream volunteer who will teach the Blaine classes this fall.
“We think finances are an important slice of everyone’s life and if we can handle [money] well, we can make everyone’s lives better,” he said.
The classes will teach budgeting, handling new and old debt, credit scores and history, achieving and maintaining financial stability, retirement planning and the psychology behind money.
Stray, who has a business degree from St. Martin’s University, said he sees people struggle the most with debt, long-term planning and responsible spending.
Financial classes are geared toward people earning low incomes, but Stray said all are welcome.
Classes will be offered to about 20 people, but there’s not a set limit. Scheduling in advance is recommended, but attendees can also show up to the classes.
“We hope a lot of people will be interested, come out, learn more about money and how to deal with it,” Stray said. “We’re always excited to put on another class in Blaine.”
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Home A monthly special section in The Northern Light&Garden
Know what seeds you’re buying as you garden your way into 2022
B y r h I annon a llen
The start of a new gardening year already?
Whether you are relatively new to gardening or an old hand at it, it’s time to plan for seed starting if that suits your fancy. With pandemic-inspired interest in home gardening and growing from seed, it makes sense to order seeds before companies sell out of the seed variety you have your eyes on.
One of the things that confuses even old garden hands is the terminology used in seed catalogs. It certainly has confused me at times. So I thought that perhaps I could take this column to go over some generic terms one sees in seed catalogs: genetically modified, organic, heirloom, open pollinated and hybrid.
Genetically modified (GM, GMO or GEO) seed comes from plants whose genetics have been modified in laboratories to produce plants with some sort of advantage over seeds whose inheritance lies in the field rather than the lab.
Genes from a different organism have been spliced into the genetic code of a GMO seed to enhance productivity, increase resistance to pests, or create resistance to the herbicides used in agriculture for weed control. Plant breeding has gone on for millennia, but over time the term GM has become restricted to plants developed in the laboratory. Currently, few GM seeds are sold to home gardeners, since they were developed for largescale agriculture and for provisioning groceries, but that could change at any time.
Organic seed is non-GM seed that has been grown on certified organic farms and processed in certified facilities. These seeds have never come in contact with synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, although they might have been grown with those approved for organic use.
Organic seeds can be handled with bare hands and used for sprouting – even eaten direct from the package – without fear of contacting harmful chemicals. All this care, of course, comes at a cost and you should expect to pay more – just as you pay more for organic produce in the grocery store.
Heirloom or ‘heritage seed’ lacks a precise definition. However, most catalogs will label plants grown before WWII as heirloom. Of course, what is heirloom in one place does not mean that it really is a heritage plant in another region.
Nonetheless, these are usually robust plants that have stood the test of taste and time, having hit their stride when local farming and home gardening supplied the primary provisions on our dining tables. Stick to heirloom seeds from your own region, and you will not be disappointed. If you prefer to be delighted by the wild, wonderful or exotic, these are not the plants for you. Note that heirloom plants will not be GM, but they may or may not be organic. All heirloom plants are open pollinated, which is the next term used in many catalogs.
Open pollinated or OP is a term likely to confuse the home gardener selecting seeds from a catalog. It comes from the concept that in a natural setting, most plants are pollinated by the wind and by pollinators carrying pollen from nearby plants of the same variety. This produces fertile seed that is strikingly genetically similar to its parents.
Over time, seed companies have worked carefully to make sure that seeds they label as OP will grow true to their parents and will pass on predicable characteristics to their own progeny. They do this by growing the seed in large plantings of genetically identical plants that will pollinate each other.
Therefore, when you buy OP seed, the plant will have relatively predictable characteristics and will yield seed that you can save for next year’s crop.
However, there might be occasional surprises because ‘open’ creates the opportunity for – well – wayward parents. This is particularly the case for OP seeds that you save yourself when your plant was easily cross-pollinated by your neighbor’s plant.
OP stands in contrast to hybrid seeds, which sometimes bear the additional designation of F1 or F2 to indicate their genetic generation. These are seeds derived by fertilizing one variety of a plant with the pollen from a different but compatible variety. This is done in an effort to blend the best characteristics of each parent. When developed by professional plant geneticists you can get some spectacular and unusual plants.
However, the plants have not yet been stabilized into varieties that breed true and can be left to open pollinate. That means that you are unlikely to experience success with saving seeds in the hope that you will get a similar plant next year. I’ve noticed that many garden vegetable seeds are hybrids, but this seems to be less true of herb and flower seeds.
Now bring on those seed catalogs!
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