I was adding onto my order today and expressed my sadness for their closing. He sent me this attachment:
Hi ,
The time has come for Tempo Two to close and for us to retire and take things easy.
Our family has had a nursery since 1890, starting in Christchurch in England.
Barry’s great grandfather started it and it was continued in England until 1966.
It was called Riverslea Nurseries and they specialised in Alpines and Perennials including some Iris.. My grandfather left the family business in the early 1900’s and migrated to Australia where he began a nursery at Bayswater in Victoria. This continued until about 1955 when he retired early due to war injuries from WW 1.
His daughter is Barry’s mother (Adoree Pernettya) and she married Charles Blyth and after WW11, they began to grow vegetables and plants, specializing in Iris and Dahlias. This became Sunnyside gardens.
When Charles retired in 1973, Barry and Lesley took over the business and changed it’s name to Tempo Two.
So it has been going a long time. Now Barry is 75 and Lesley is 73 and we have decided to close the nursery and slow down.
The last export orders will be sent out in April and the Australian orders will continue until about the end of June.
So for those interested, if you wish to add to your current order, please feel free to do so. If you have not ordered and were thinking about doing so, last export orders close on March 15, 2017 and cannot be extended.
There are 3 of out current new introductions in our catalogue completely sold out. KISS THE PRINCESS, SWEET AS HONEY and TEND MY HEART. There are also a number of other varieties through the catalogue that are also sold out. So if ordering any of the older varieties, please list acceptable substitutes or clearly mark the order NO SUBS.
In the future Thomas Johnson, the owner Of Mid America Gardens in Salem Oregon USA will be introducing some new varieties from us when he has the stock acclimatized and has sufficient plants to catalogue. This will take at least 2 to 3 years to happen. In the mean time he does catalogue some of our older introductions, so check out his website and he will have a new catalogue out in the early part of 2017. He is also happy to export to most countries around the world.
Thank you to all of our customers for your loyal support. We have loved growing and hybridizing Iris and really enjoyed hearing how much you all have enjoyed growing Blyth introductions in so many countries and regions. We see many of them appearing in Iris pedigrees all over the world and are pleased that we have contributed a little to this marvellous genus IRIS.
Barry & Lesley Blyth
