Two Men and a Lily, PART II
Infuriated and scared to death that his beloved Star Gazer was missing, Kirsch filed an 'early termination' in accordance with the contact citing inability to perform work as required, and for premature removal of bulbs from the property and, namely, the most important bulb in the works project (Fall preparation of selections for cloning). The Woodwards were forced to return the bulbs. It was never established if Star Gazer was one of the bulbs that went missing.
To make matter worse still, Kirsch then selected about two dozen of Woodriff's hybrids to patent and quickly plowed the rest under. after all, with Kirsch, time was money and he wasn't about to spend time baby sitting anymore of Woodriff's exotic hybrids. That must have been shear devastation for Woodriff to see his life's work destroyed like that. Woodriff sued, claiming early breach of contract and $300,000 for the potential value of the plowed under bulbs that Kirsch had destroyed and was eventually awarded only, $5000 plus legal expenses.
In 1975, Sun Valley and Kirsch registered Star Gazer as parentage unknown, giving credit to Woodriff as hybridizer. In the years that followed, Sun Valley and Kirsch would register 26 more hybrids, 25 of those as parentage unknown ( maybe Woodriff's? ). Kirsch later sold 3000 Star Gazer bulbs at $5.00 each to the Dutch but overlooked getting a legal documented contract for protection of Breeder's Rights within the Netherlands. Because of that there was no limit to acreage and anybody could grow as many as they wanted without paying a penny royalty to Kirsch and Sun Valley while the Dutch made millions. And, while Leslie Woodriff could see his Star Gazers in floral arrangements everywhere, he did not own one. It would be another 10 years before he would once again hold the bulb he had created. After the breakup with Kitsch, the Woodriffs moved back to Fairyland where Leslie and his daughter Winkey would continue to hybridize and operate Fairyland until the time of Leslie's passing.
Ted Kirsch eventually sold Sun Valley Bulb Farm to Milridge. When Milridge went bankrupt, much of Sun Valley stock and Milridge stock was obtained by the newly formed Cebeco, USA, headed up by Don Egger, the former chief hybridizer at the time for Milridge. When Cebeco USA decided to close its USA operations, it's field stock was destroyed. Much of that which was left was purchased by Mak Breeding. In the mix of all this business activity and immediately after the Milridge bankruptcy, Sun Valley Bulb Farms emerged from the ashes with new financing, under the management of Lane De Vries, formerly George Heublein's hand picked young man to run Sun Valley as a cut flower entity of Milridge. Under De Vries leadership, the old Sun Valley Bulb Farm is now the largest cut flower producer in North America. I believe it's now called the Sun Valley Group.
Ted Kirsch passed away in 1996. Leslie Woodriff passed away in 1997. Don Egger passed away in 2000.
end of PART II. Open to questions and comments. Photo of Leslie Woodriff (left) at Fairyland)
Edit Added: For the record, the gentleman with Woodriff is Willem Meijles, a sales person for Van Ti Hartman. Pictured below is Ted Kirsch and wife.
