About This Blog
A company started back in 1868 has a multitude of compelling stories to share! And most of those stories belong to our millions of customers.
Long-time customers. Current customers. Sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters of customers. Old friends. New friends. Friends of friends. YOU, perhaps??
My dream for this weblog is that it will become a place for people to share their favorite memories involving Park Seed Company, Wayside Gardens, and Jackson & Perkins. Tell us about your Grandmother's garden and how the two of you used to put up pickles from the cucumbers she grew there. Show us a picture of the garden that your parent's had during the Great Depression. Write about your first attempt to start a squash patch. Share a photo of your kids with their first sunflowers. Show us how you love your red, red roses. Reminisce with us about visiting our 9-acre trial garden when you were just a kid. You get the idea!
Of course, in addition to generations of great customers, Park Seed, Wayside Gardens, and Jackson & Perkins have been blessed with generations of great employees, so this is their blog, too. Our founder's granddaughter, Karen Park Jennings, has played a vital role in our company. And some of the folks around here have worked here even longer than she has. I'm hoping you'll get to hear their voices, too.
I invite you to be a regular guest--read the stories that appear, leave your comments, and contact me at ckuhl@parkseed.com if you'd like to share your own story and pictures. Thank you for 139 great years--and here's to many more ahead!
Carroll Spivey a former Baptist Minister from Greenwood grew some peas that he had acquired from your company.They were called Rice peas or Breakfast peas.They are a very small beige pea and hard to shell. Could you please tell me if they are still availiable
Posted by: Pat Tomberlin | January 17, 2008 at 04:16 PM
Pat, I've responded by email. And in case you are monitoring this area, here's the info we found.
Anne Moore, our award-winning garden writer/moderator for www.ThePlantCoach.org may have the answer to your question about 'Breakfast Peas' or 'Rice Peas.' Here's what Anne found out for you:
"Claire,
I suspect your reader is looking for Southern Cow Peas. I found one at this site called southern acre, which is a small southern pea and appears it might be beige:
http://www.southernexposure.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=CPEA
There is a recipe here that sounds like breakfast: ham, black-eyed peas, & rice:
http://southernfood.about.com/od/blackeyedpeas/r/bl81231e.htm
Anne"
Please send me a note and let me know if this is the answer you were looking for. I'd love to share your story in the ParkSeedMemories.com blog. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
Posted by: Claire | January 31, 2008 at 04:11 PM
After our dear "Minnie" (a Collie/German Shepherd) passed away two winters ago, it was important for us to keep our big yard that she loved as beautiful as possible. It was the first year I bought plants from Park Seed. We started with "Iceplants" (delosperma), and planted them in a space where Minnie loved to sleep in the sun. The flowers had the prettiest "faces" like our Minnie, and they grew beautifully! Thank you, Park Seed, for helping to make "Minnie's Garden" beautiful year after year!
Posted by: Cheryl Bonifant | February 03, 2008 at 03:28 PM
Dear Cheryl,
Thank you so much for telling me about Minnie. I know how precious my pets (two cats and a Sheltie) are to me! So glad we can help keep Minnie's memory bright!
Posted by: Claire | February 04, 2008 at 02:52 PM
Hi Claire -
Thanks for adding All the Dirt garden blog to your list of links.
When I was a kid in the 1950s the most impressive part of growing up in a rural area was going to classmates' farms for summer sleep overs.
The farm wives' vegetable gardens surrounded by flowers to attract pollinators caught my eye as a child. I thought they were breathtaking.
These experiences probably explain why I am trying to create a similar feeling to our retirement 2.5 acres in Oklahoma.
We are learning as we go and need informative sites like this one and Park's successwithseed.org. Thanks for all you do,
Martha in Muskogee OK
Posted by: Martha Stoodley/All the Dirt | February 28, 2008 at 03:55 PM
Greetings, Martha!
Actually, I remember visiting my 3rd grade best friend's family apple orchard in the 1960s. What an experience. It was only about 3 miles up the road from my house, but so very different from my corner of the world. Thanks for the teamwork!
Posted by: Claire | February 28, 2008 at 04:28 PM
As a youngster in California in the 1930's, I sold seeds door to door I think for American Seed Company. However, they have no info on their website regarding this activity. Can you help?
Posted by: William Noxon | December 06, 2008 at 03:05 PM
William, I'm sorry, but I have historical information about only the Park Seed and Wayside Gardens companies. To try and help you, I did an online search for "door-to-door American Seed Company" and found some interesting old ads--apparently, they recruited salesmen via comic book ads! Sorry that I can't be of more help. Thanks for stopping by, anyway!
Posted by: Claire F. | December 08, 2008 at 03:35 PM