IVES.
(Labrusca, Aestivalis?)
1. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt., 1856:433. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt., 1858:176. 3. Horticulturist, 21:327. 1866. 4. Grape Cult., 1:10, 12, 42, 80, 116. 1869. 5. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat., 1869:42. 6. Grape Cult., 2:171, fig., 172, 297. 1870. 7. Mich. Pom. Soc. Rpt., 1875:403. fig. 8. Bush. Cat., 1883:111, 112. fig. 9. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt., 22:166. 1889. 10. Ala. Sta. Bul., 10:10. 1890. 11. Va. Sta. Bul., 30:100, 108. 1893. 12. Mo. Sta. Bul., 46:39, 42, 45, 46, 54, 76. 1899. 13. Ga. Sta. Bul., 28:289, 291. 1895. 14. Tenn. Sta. Bul., Vol. 9:182. 1896. 15. Traité gen. de vit., 6:183. 1903.
Ives’ Madeira (6, 8, 15). Ives’ Madeira Seedling (3). Ives’ Seedling (1, 3, 4, 7). Ives’ Seedling (6, 8, 14, 15). Ives’ Seedling Madeira (15). Kittredge (3, 6, 8, 15).
A number of years ago Ives attained a high reputation as a grape for the making of red wines and was held to be surpassed only by Norton for this purpose. It is hardy, healthy, vigorous, and fruitful, but poor in quality as a table grape, not ranking above Hartford, with which it sometimes competes in the market though wrongfully, as it is a much later grape. Ives colors long before it is ripe and is often sent to market before sufficiently matured, at which stage of development it is barely edible. Even when ripe it has a foxy odor objectionable to nearly all; moreover, its flesh is tough and pulpy. The bunches are compact with well-formed, jet-black grapes, which make it an attractive fruit. It is easily propagated and is adapted to any good grape soil. It is so rampant in growth that it is difficult to manage in the vineyard. The good characters of the vine, as well as one or two of the fruit, indicate that Ives might be desirable for breeding purposes, but its special value is for the making of red wines of the claret type, in which it is said to have a fine red color but a foxy taste and odor which, however, improve with age. Ives is hardly as widely grown as formerly, having been most popular at the time when the Catawba along the Ohio River was succumbing to fungal diseases and a more healthy and productive grape was wanted. It has never been very largely grown elsewhere.
Ives was grown by Henry Ives from seed planted in 1840 in his garden in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was exhibited in 1844 before the Cincinnati Horticultural Society. Ives insisted that it came from seed of Madeira grapes which had been sent him from abroad. As the variety is evidently largely, if not wholly Labrusca, it has always been supposed that his Madeira seedlings became accidentally mixed with a chance seedling. Because of some of its characters the parentage of Ives has been variously credited to Isabella, Alexander, Hartford and others, but nothing is positively known as to this phase of its origin. It was placed on the grape list in the American Pomological Society fruit catalog in 1869 where it is still retained. Ives was awarded in 1868 the premium offered by the Longworth Wine House of Cincinnati for the best wine grape for the United States. It is still cultivated to a considerable extent although not nearly so popular as forty years ago.
Vine vigorous, hardy, healthy, productive to very productive. Canes long to medium, of average number, thick, dark brown to reddish-brown, surface covered with thin blue bloom; nodes enlarged, slightly flattened; internodes short; diaphragm thick; pith medium to below in size; shoots pubescent; tendrils continuous, of average length, bifid to trifid.