Glass Gems Corn

Purchased from:  Native Seeds/SEARCH for $5.95/50 seeds
Type: Flint Corn

I've been on the waiting list for this beauty for over a year, and I was really excited to see that it had come up available this year for purchase- even if the price was a bit steep, at nearly $6 for a mere 50 seeds.  Hell, I'm not even 100% sure that I'm going to have a long enough growing season for this, but I'm sure as hell going to give it a try.

For seed-saving purposes, I am growing this variety only at home to avoid cross-pollination.  The thing to know about corn is that it is a natural outcrosser, so if you have different varieties of corn growing together, you can forget about saving your seed and getting the same thing you planted.  Sometimes this can also affect the actual edible corn that you're able to get, but if 2 varieties are similar enough (i.e. they're both sweet corn or popcorn), it won't matter.  Since I'm growing Fisher's Earliest Sweet Corn as my other variety, I don't dare put them near one another.  Also, I don't want cross-contamination from the community garden, so this one is going to be planted in my front yard.  How gauche!

Also, if it isn't apparent why I purchased this from the seed packet, here's the original picture that started circulating around the internet a couple years ago:

True to the name "Glass Gems," eh?  I'm not the only one who had a garden-gasm over the gorgeous picture, either.  The story of this variety is also incredibly interesting, and can be found on the Seeds Trust website:

"Seedsman Greg Schoen got the seed from Carl Barnes, a part-Cherokee man, now in his 80's, in Oklahoma.  He was Greg's "corn-teacher".   Greg was in the process of moving last year and wanted someone else to store and protect some of his seeds.  He left samples of several corn varieties, including glass gem.  I  grew out a small handful this past summer just to see.  The rest, as they say is history.  I got so excited, I posted a picture on Facebook.  We have never seen anything like this. "

 That photo went viral last year sometime, and I'm just thrilled to be able to grow it this year.  I am going to baby the crap out of these plants- starting early with row covers to keep them warm, etc.  I really hope that our growing season proves conducive to getting some gorgeous ornamental ears as well as some saved seeds.