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Is there more than just 2 bockings, if so what do you use them for, and how do you identify them?

black thumb
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    Hm. It took me less than five minutes of googling - did you do any research before asking? – Stephie Sep 06 '16 at 05:53
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    Hi black thumb! Would you mind expanding on this a little? Bocking sounds interesting, but I have not idea what it means, so I think I might not be the only one. Also, the body of the question doesn't mention comfrey, so to someone just reading the question it could look unclear as to whether you're asking for information about bockings, or only as they relate to comfrey. I'd appreciate your help with this. Thanks! – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL Sep 06 '16 at 17:57
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    @Sue, I was confused as well. "Bocking" is another word for "Russian comfrey hybrid developed by L. D. Hills in the town of Bocking, Essex, England in the 1950s". See first paragraph of [this Wikipedia article on comfrey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfrey#Cultivation). But yes, as it stands, it's pretty unclear if you just read the question. Black thumb, did you get the hint? – Stephie Sep 06 '16 at 19:38
  • @Stephie Thanks for this! I had actually seen your awesome answer before posting my comment, but I was afraid future visitors wouldn't understand the question, and I'm glad you agree! I thought bocking was a thing, and possibly a mis-spelling of blocking, and I can see your computer thought it was booking! black thumb, I do hope you'll expand the question, especially because there's much to learn from the answer. – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL Sep 06 '16 at 19:59
  • @Stephie there has to be a good list with explanations available somewhere. – black thumb Sep 08 '16 at 19:46

1 Answers1

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Aparently there are multiple cultivars 1-21 as indicated in this book and mentioned in this forum.

The reason Bocking 4 and 14 are usually mentioned and available seems to be that those hybrids are those with the best results.

In addition to what John said let me add, the term "Bocking" refers to a village subdistrict, in Braintree district, Essex in England. The term was applied to comfrey by Lawrence D. Hills who chose it during his research simply because it was the location of his research. He firgured that way Bocking would be universal and used in any language. Where had he said say variety 4, in Spain it would be variedad 4 and in say Italy it would be varietà 4, etc. Where as Bocking would be called Bocking by everyone.
[..]

The next thing people ask than is what happened to Bocking 1-3 and 4-13 and are there any higher than 14. The basic answer is that 4 and 14 ended up being the two that grew best and worked best as fodder and fertility yields.
(Source)

Stephie
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  • I had to go look this up immediately, if it were a 'thing' I'd never heard of it! What I am understanding is that this is just another way to NAME different varieties of Comfery because...they've run out of latin names to use? Or run out of creativity? Grins! – stormy Sep 06 '16 at 20:05
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    @stormy Because they didn't want to use "variety x", so they used "\[place of the garden\] X". As a non-native speaker I had hoped to learn a new technical term, but I got a weird bit of comfrey trivia instead. Knowing my brain, I will remember this until I'm old and grey.... – Stephie Sep 06 '16 at 20:14