Park Seed Memories

The Creative Kids Get UGLY for the Holidays!

  If you've ever read this blog before, you know that the gang here at Park Seed/Wayside Gardens loves to get a little silly at times. And today, as the December holiday festivities approach their peak, my friends in the Creative Department got really creative and downright UGLY. Pictured above are the contestents in Creative's first annual ugly sweater contest. (Pssst...Stephanie, lower left, with the purple Christmas cats, is an imposter. She doesn't really work in the Creative Department. But her sweater was SO ugly, they had to include her!)

First, let me hasten to explain the creative thing. There are many of us here who fancy ourselves to be quite creative! But the art directors and associates who design all our catalogs and print materials laid claim to Creative as their official department name.

Next, let me tell you why I contend that these talented folks are downright UGLY. You see, in my book, that stands for:
Understanding
Generous
Lively
Young

The gang gathered in the Garden Center for the picture, and then returned to their lair for a pot-luck feast. I hung around for a bit in the Garden Center to admire the amaryllis and this poinsettia "tree." It offers me the perfect festive footnote to close out this year, and to allow me to wish you a very merry Christmas, a happy Hannukah, an inspiring Kawanza, or even a spectacular solstice! I'll talk to you again next year.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Park Seed and Wayside Gardens!

Vintage Images Capture Long-Ago Summer Beauty

As a relaxing antidote to the crazed level of holiday busy-ness and winter weather (at least in some parts of the country), here are some vintage images of summer flowers long past. We found these lovely visions while perusing some of the antique gardening books here in the Park Seed library. It's a treasure trove! First, here's an old Rose--a Susanne Marie Rodocanachi, to be precise. The caption notes that the image is "based on a photograph by Messrs. Byrne and Co., Richmond, Surrey."

 

Next, a splash of purple to add color to your wintry day...

I guess it's rude of me to focus on nasty winter weather (e.g., "A new storm will track into the Upper Midwest Saturday with the most significant snow (4 to 8 inches) from the Dakotas to Wisconsin and western Michigan," according to weather.com today). You see, it was 72 and sunny in Greenwood, SC yesterday, and still warm today, although clouds are gathering. So I'm not placing any bets on us having a white Christmas this year!

But then...as any gardener will tell you, NEVER assume you can outguess Mother Nature when it comes to weather whimsy!

Bunnies and Rabbits Everywhere!

  It's always nice to hear from old friends, and last week, I heard from writer and bunnie-wrangler Loretta Hayward. She has both fun bun photos to share, as well as bunny tales to tell from her trip to the American Rabbit Breeders Association convention. Here's Loretta's email:

Hi Claire!
We were thrilled to attend the ARBA convention in Louisville, Kentucky the last week of August. There were over 23,000 rabbits! There were rabbits there that we would not see in a   lifetime!  It was so enjoyable meeting people from all over the country. There were many that flew in from other countries to see, and even purchase and ship bunnies to their homeland in Japan, England, Australia, Germany, and many more.

We  were able to take our newest book with us! At the Christmas Fair in Greenville, we had thousands come by our booth and visit with our rabbits and to buy our books and cards! People love garden flowers all year long, and we make that possible!  The illustrations in our books are all photographs of our real flowers and rabbits!  It is a feast for the eyes!

We are seldom celebrating Christmas with snow on the ground here in Fountain Inn, SC, but when we got snow for 3 days in 2003, we made the most of it! We had a big time with our bunnies in the snow! They played in it, and behaved like puppies digging, rolling, and burrowing in the snow. I attached a picture of one picture we made into a Christmas card! I am sure it will bring smiles! I do want to wish you a Merry Christmas too! You may share these on your blog!
 
Loretta Hayward

I don't think I can truly imagine 23,000 bunnies bouncing in one place! But it sounds like Loretta & Company had a great time. I enjoy looking at her garden pictures, knowing that Park Seed Company is one of her favorite resources. Hmmm...I wonder if we could get her to come and capture Mr. Bunn, the sizeable rabbit who lives in our Trial Gardens, and drives Chris Brown and Stephanie Turner crazy by stealthily munching their vegetables during spring and summer? Just a thought--something along the lines of a witness protection program--a rabbit relocation and rehabilitation service?

If you have pictures of your favorite animals frolicking in your garden during any season, email them to me at ckuhl@parkseed.com. We love sharing stories of great gardeners here!

Kids in the Garden: Kyle

Few things are as much fun as watching a child discover the glories of gardening and the fun of flowers. Old friend Joan Wickersham was kind enough to send some great pictures of her granddaughter, Kyle, in response to the recent Park's News December newsletter.

Here's what Joan had to say in her email:

What a sense of accomplishment! Love the new pictures on the catalog front--more kids need to get to enjoy the feeling of planting and harvesting the food we eat.

Granddaughter Kyle (age 2) loves the flowers. We go daily to pick some for the table. She finds beauty in all kinds. We were even out this week to see if we could find any pansies in the snow. Keep up the good work--perhaps more kids will learn the joy of food and flowers. 

Joan Wickersham

Thanks, Joan! I must say, Kyle does look like she's having fun. At Park Seed Company, we believe in sprouting young gardeners--the earlier, the better! After all, our founder was only 16 years old when he starting harvesting and selling seed from his own backyard garden!

If you have pictures of the young gardeners in your family--past and present--please share them here. We treasure our generations of great gardeners, and love seeing them in action. Please email your images and stories to me at ckuhl@parkseed.com.

Creativity Abounds in Harvest Decor Contest

Fall is traditionally the time of year when we celebrate the bounty and beauty of the harvest. And this fall--through the month of November, to be precise--my friends in the Park Seed eCommerce Department challenged their customers to participate in a Harvest Decor contest. They invited gardeners to create a decorative display featuring the fruits of their gardening labors and then send in a photo to compete for a $100 Park Seed gift certificate. The gorgious photo above is just one example of the amazing entries we received.

I tell you, it gets harder and harder to choose winners for these contests!

Still, we did manage to narrow the field to one winning entry. To see all the photos that were submitted, please visit the 2008 Havest Decor Contest photo album at left. And when you get to the very last photo, you'll find out who won. Enjoy!

Even though the contest is over, you can always send me photos of your gardening glories! Just email to ckuhl@parkseed.com. I look forward to harvesting more imaginative images!

Seeking my Fortune...Magazine, that is

While helping Rodger Winn research his Zelma/Selma bean and sunflower seed history question, I ran across lots of interesting items in the old Park Seed catalogs. One comment in the traditional "family page" (shown at right) from the 1962 catalog particularly caught my eye, and I'm hoping that perhaps one of you readers can help me find a copy of the item in question:

"George W. Park began selling flower seeds in 1868, and through his catalogs and 'Park's Floral Magazine,' he served gardening enthusiasts all over America. He is now almost a legend in gardening circles.

"Not long before his death in 1935, Fortune Magazine published an article about his business career. He was described as the "Bete Noire of the Seed Trade," because he insisted on selling his fine seeds at considerably less than other seed firms.

"He truly believed and lived his creed, 'Your success and pleasure are more to Park than your money.' This was his interpretation of the verse from Proverbs: 'A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver or gold.'

"While this policy did not make him rich in worldly goods, he was rich in friends, for he felt each customer was his friend."

My challenge to you--help me find a copy of that 1935 Fortune Magazine article! I immediately tried an online search, of course, but I didn't find anything. I sniffed around the Fortune Magazine online archive, but again, no luck. So...if you happen to be a history buff with access to magazines from 1935, I hope you'll help me out--I'd love to read that article about our founder!

By the way, if you are ever cleaning out an attic or garage and run across Park Seed or Wayside Gardens catalogs from long ago, or copies of Park's Floral Magazine,  I'd love to have them! Our budding corporate archive has benefited often from generous gifts (e.g., the time-traveling tomato seeds, 1911 catalogs, and even Wayside Gardens landcape designs) from readers and customers. Email me at ckuhl@parkseed.com or send to Park Seed Company, 1 Parkton Avenue, Greenwood, South Carolina, 29647, attention Claire Kuhl. I'd love to share more treasures here!

Digging into Selma Zebra's History

In my last post, I talked about how Mr. Rodger Winn of Rodger's Heirloom Vegetable Plants asked me to help him do some research into exactly when Park Seed Company marketed some plants developed by his wife's late uncle, Mr. J. C. Metze. We did find one of Mr. Metze's vegetables, the Selma Zebra pole bean, in the 1977 catalog. This left us with two mysteries. First, why was the bean called Zelma or Selma? And second, what was the first year that Park Seed offered Selma Zebra?

Mr. Winn himself had information about why the bean was named Selma. Through the magic of Google, I found an article by someone who met Mr. Winn at a seed-swapping event and got some of the story:

"This day we also met Rodger Winn, who gardens in South Carolina and who sold us gorgeous $1.00 tomato plants with the names the likes of Tennessee Britches (who could resist!!), and gave us the fabulous Zelma Zesta bean. Rodger explained that his wife Karen’s great uncle J. C. Metze developed this beautiful and flavorful pole bean, which was eventually marketed byPark Seed.

"Mr. Metze was from Little Mountain, SC and was a dedicated seed-saver. He developed the bean in the 40’s and 50’s by careful selection from his crops. In the 60’s he approached Park with his final selection, which then went to trial in Selma, Alabama. Park bought the rights to market the bean, and it appeared in several catalogs in the early 60’s as the Selma Zester; however, Rodger says 'Mr. J. C. always referred to the name as the Zelma Zesta, and that is how he presented it to me in the early 80’s.' Mr. Metze and his wife have now passed on, and his one surviving brother cannot remember any details on the bean. Rodger did contact Park Seed, who told him that all their beans from the 60’s into the 70’s had the name Selma as they were grown out for production in the same fields in Alabama. Rodger states about the name '…we kept the name Zelma Zesta as written on the original seed Mr. J. C. Metze gave me, and most folks around here who have this bean or knew of it just referred to it as Mr. J. C.’s Greenbean.'"

Aha! Now we know where Selma came from. But we'll probably never know why Mr. J. C. changed it to Zelma. Perhaps he just thought it was more zesty? Had a little more zing, perhaps?

Now, what about the date question? The particular Park Seed 1977 seed catalog that we found was a bound marked book. In the cataloger's world, a marked book is one that contains sales figures tied to each item and its specific location in the catalog. By carefully analyzing a year-by-year series of marked books, it's possible to determine if a particular product sells better when it's at the front of the book rather than the back, or if the picture is bigger, or if the copy is longer or shorter. In this particular case, the marked book shows sales figure for 1976 and for 1977, to help with the year-over-year comparison. As it happens, there is no Selma Zebra sales data for 1976--only for 1977. It is typical for a seed to appear year after year and unusual for it to drop out and then come back. Therefore, I think there's a good possibility that 1977 was the first year that Park Seed Company offered the Selma Zebra pole bean. That's my hypothosis, anyway!

If you have better information about the Selma/Zelma questions or a vegetable mystery of your own that you'd like to explore, contact me at ckuhl@parkseed.com. I always enjoy hearing from you! And I would particularly appreciate your sending me old catalogs that you would be willing to donate to our archive. In working with Mr. Winn, I found that while we have an extensive (although far from complete) collection of Park's Floral Magazine from the 1960s, we are woefully limited in actual catalogs from the period of 1950 to 1979.

A Bean by Any Other Name...

Zelma or Selma, that is the question! Either way, it's a beautiful bean with an interesting story. Our saga begins when I received a email from Mr. Rodger Winn of Rodger's heirloom Vegetable Plants. He wanted to know if I had any Park Seed catalogs from the 1960s-1970s in our archive.

"I am a certified organic grower, and I produce seed for several heirloom seed companies. I did a grow out of a couple of older Park's varieties. One was developed by my wife's late uncle, Mr. J. C. Metze of Newberry, SC. In the early 80's, he gave me some seed of a Rattlesnake-type pole bean he had labeled as  Zelma Zesta that he developed and sold to Park Seed. I did not know the dates it was sold, and he is no longer living, but the consensus of family was the 60s-early 70s.

I also grew a Sunflower called Selma Suns for a customer and it, too, was a Park's release in the same period. I have also been asked about another bean very similar to the Zelma Zesta (which could be Selma Zesta from the Selma Alabama Farm). This other bean was sold in the early 70s and was called Selma Zebra. I would like to know date of introduction and sold dates for my own records and for catalog description for the heirloom seed companies I grow for."

Rodger came to visit me recently, and we did, indeed, find some catalogs from the 60s and 70s. And we were lucky enough to find Selma Zebra listed in the 1977 catalog! You can see the picture above, which shows the distinctive markings that gave this bean its name. The text in the catalog describes it this way:

Selma Zebra. Matures as early as a bush bean, grows only to a height of 6 feet. The beany taste and aroma are unequaled, extremely tender and stringless. Excellent fresh, dried, or frozen. The beans are a light green striped blue.

So far, so good. Now we know that we were definitely selling this bean in 1977. But was that the first year? And why did Mr. Metze call it Zelma instead of Selma? We may have to explore this a bit further!

To see pictures of the Selma/Zelma heirlooms growing in Rodger's garden, check out this link and scroll down: http://s343.photobucket.com/albums/o466/rdwinn/?start=all.

More Fun with Felines: Fluffy in the Greenhouse

Nevermind that you can't grow cats with catmint seeds, nor puppies with poppy seeds--we've still been having big fun with pets at Park Seed lately. When we bemoaned our poor luck with getting any employee cats to sit on a Bio Dome, one reader wrote in with the step-by-step instructions we should have followed:

My advice:
(1) Warm the top -- e.g. put a lightbulb inside
(2) Make it clear to the cat that you do not want it to go anywhere near it. Then leave the room for awhile.
Cindy

Thanks, Cindy--clearly, you know and understand how cats think! And all of the cat-lovers here got a big laugh just picturing what our cats would do.

Also, when I alerted Buddy's Mom, Patty, that her kitty was featured in my blog, she wrote back to say that another of her feline friends also has a fondness for gardening. Or Park Seed gardening accessories, anyway! Here's what Patty wrote:

Bless your heart! Thank you! I do a prison ministry, writing to about 70 inmates across the US. I've printed off your newsletter, with Buddy's picture, to send to a few of them.  I have a picture of Fluffy, on the Park heating mats, with the seedlings. (We adore our kitties 4!)

The Bio Domes are on Park Seed Heat mats. Whenever I opened the door, Fluffy scampered in, and stretched out on the back of the heat mat. As the seedlings grew and were transplanted into 2x2 pots, she became very indignant with me, as "her" heat mat space disappeared! She started walking through the seedlings, looking for a place to lie down, so I had to ban her from the greenhouse!
Patty

If you look closely in the pictures, you can see Fluffy peeking through the seedlings (above left) and lurking behind the Bio Domes. Poor Fluffy--ousted from her cosy spot by those pesky plants!! And not a catnip seedling in the bunch, either.

Cindy and Patty, thank you so much for your wit and wisdom. And the photos! If your gerbils are gnoshing your garden greens or your dog is digging up your daisies, take a picture and send it along to me at ckuhl@parkseed.com. After all, pets are part of the gardening family, too!

Proof at Last--Park Seed Bio Dome Supports Cat Naps!

Months ago, someone contacted us at SuccessWithSeed.org, asking whether the Park Seed Bio Dome was sturdy enough to support a 10-pound cat. The writer was eager to set up a seed-starting station, but suspected it would be a temptation to the family pet, who is partial to perching on any and everything in sight. Needless to say, we took this as a challenge!

First, we quickly proved that the Bio Dome easily supports ten pounds--a pair of my workout weights solved that. But the more interesting question remained: how would an actual cat interact with our beloved Bio Dome?

  I immediately rushed home with a brand new Bio Dome and tried to entice my cats, Megan and Sean, to sit on it.

  As you can see here, neither the cats nor our dog, Brogan, did anything more that take a quick sniff and walk away. I suspect they might have been more interested if I'd had something actually growing, like catnip. Or Milk-Bones.

Next, fellow eCommerce Director, shutterbug, and pet-lover Christa tried to get her cat, Scamp to participate. But as documented elsewhere, she had the same luck I did. As in NONE. In fact, not one of our employees succeeded in luring their felines into a photo-friendly pose vis-a-vis the darn Dome. Finally, we invited our newsletter readers to join in the fun.

And the result?

That spectacular, unposed shot of Buddy the Cat (top), lounging on top of not one but TWO Bio Domes! We are most grateful to Patty Backman for sharing this fabulous image! Here's what Patty told us about her photogenic feline, Buddy:

"He was about 8-9 months old, then. He and his 2 brothers just showed up, last October. When I went in to start cleaning up and getting ready to plant, Buddy just made himself at home. There were 2 Bio Domes, side by side. He is stretched out across the top of them."

Thank you SO much, Patty! At last, we can all rest easy, knowing that Park Seed provides a patented pet perch that doubles as a superior seed-starting system.

Do you have any photos of your pets swatting at your seedlings, galloping throught your garden, or otherwise being adorable in proximity to your plants? Send them to me at ckuhl@parkseed.com. We love to share pictures and stories of what's growing in YOUR garden!