Narrative
Cross made in 1930. Fruit: cluster medium-tight; berry large; round oblate; skin blue; flesh firm, aromatic; dessert quality good; flavor pronounced; susceptible to cracking; scar large, poor; season late, after Jersey. Bush: productive; open-spreading; vigorous. - Brooks and Olmo Register of Fruit and Nut Varieties. 1997. ASHS Press. p. 180.Season after Jersey, large, late, good for home gardens Fredrick V. Coville, Principal Botanist, Division of Plant Exploration and Introduction, Bureau of Plant Industry, 1937. Improving the Wild Blueberry. Yearbook of Agriculture. USDA. Govt. Printing Office. Washington, D.C. pp. 573-574.''The unnamed blueberry GM37 lacked only flavor to make it a valuable variety. In 1930 it was cross-pollinated with the Stanley blueberry, the most delicious of all varieties. Among the progeny was a bush that attracted attention first in 1935 and again in 1936. Its berries are sweet-subacid and delicious. On July 9, 1935, the largest berry was over 21 mm in diameter, and on July 24 of that year over 23 mm. On July 24, 1936, the largest berry reached 24 mm. If the season of 1936 had been a favorable one for the development of large individual blueberries, I am confident that the berries on this plant would have reached a diameter of more than an inch. There is now only a single bush of this variety. It will be several years before it can be propagated for a throrough field test of its qualities. Nevertheless, there are circumstances that seem to make it desireable to give a name to this variety at this time. Toward the end of the present fiscal year I terminate my connection with the Department of Agriculture after 49 years of botanical research. It was the custom of Linneaus and other scientific men of his time, when a public address was given in Latin, to end the address with a Latin word that meant, 'I have spoken,' ' I have said what I have to say,' or 'I am through.' Therefore, with orthographic apologies to the southern half of the United States, I name this blueberry and end this paper with that latin word - Dixi.'Blueberry growers should be careful not to misspell the name of the 'Dixi' blueberry, for the wrong spelling 'Dixie' may give the erroneous impression that this variety is especially adapted to cultivation in the south. The ancestors of the 'Dixi' blueberry were northern plants, and although the variety may be of value as far south as North Carolina, there is every reason to expect that it will not thrive in the Gulf States.
Frederick V. Coville cultivar - his last release Named for a latin phrase meaning "I have spoken." to speak = dico, dicere, dixi, dictus in latin Introduced in 1936
WHY NAMED= Coville's final blueberry cultivar release
NAMED FOR= latin phrase meaning "I have spoken."