Park Seed Memories

Garden Poems from 1899, Part II

Turning once again to the quaint, charming pages of my 1899 Park's Floral Magazine, I bring you this little poem about flowers and their powers:

A Floral Gift

A dainty breath of Heliotrope,
   A breath of Roses sweet,
And lo! old winter's barren slope
   Drops flowers my soul to greet,
And weary mind and aching head
   Quiets beneath their spell;
Dear flowers! with chilly skies o'erhead,
   Only of Heaven ye tell.

Lilla M. Cushman, Boston 1899

Do you write poetry? Send me your best poem about flowers and gardening so everyone can enjoy it here. Are you a photographer with artistic shots to share? Send them my way! Email submissions to ckuhl@parkseed.com. I love hearing from you!

Garden Poems from 1899, Part I

Last June, I shared an unusual item sent in by a woman whose grandmother created a poetry scrapbook and included in it some garden poems from Park's Floral Magazine. That particular post seems to get a lot of attention, so I thought I would share some more poems for gardeners, courtesy of my June 1899 edition. 

We'll start today with the saga of a resourceful Cyclamen that yearns to be loved:

A Cyclamen's Scheme

A Cyclamen sat on a sill,
    And pondered deep and long,
"I'm but a homely bulb," said he,
    "Although I'm fat and strong.
I have some blossoms rolled up here
    To make the family stare.
It takes so long to bring them out,
    I fear they will despair.

"If I could give them something nice
    To see in the meanwhile,
Perhaps they'd let me keep my place
    Nor think me quite so vile.
I know! I'll get the nicest leaves
    That ever I can find,
And when they think to throw me out
    Perhaps they'll change their mind.

"For fear that they may tire of leaves,
    The queerest buds I'll get,
In shape just like a blind duck's head,
    And then I'll cease to fret;
And when they all are quite convinced
    That leaves and buds are gems,
I'll hold up high above them all
    My flower diadems."

Said Mary, "What exquisite blooms!"
    Said John, "The leaves I like."
Said Jack, "Those queer-shaped buds, I think
    The most my fancy strike."
But little Nell put out her hand,
    And gave the bulb a pat,
"I like," said she, "the most of all
    The bulb so brown and fat."

And so the modest Cyclamen,
    By doing just his best,
Succeeded well in everything,
    And stood a fourfold test.

Dame Durden
Medina, Co. O.
Jan 21, 1899

Tomorrow, I have another short little poem to share, so stay tuned. And if you have favorite poems about gardening, flowers, or digging in the dirt, by all means, please send them to me at ckuhl@parkseed.com so we can all enjoy!

Hooray for Mothers Who Let Us Play in the Dirt!

On Wednesday, I shared some cute pix of our Director of Seed Product back when she was just a little sprout.  And I invited all and sundry to share other pictures of little kids playing in the dirt. One of the first to respond to my query was our new corporate videographer, Celeste Tumblin. (She's the clever minx who slipped her picture in at the end of our new Seeds in Space video.) Here are some pictures of her son, Jeremy, when he was very young, and some great memories from Celeste:

"My son's name is Jeremy Tumblin. He was born April 7, 1986. He loved playing in the dirt & 'helping' me plant my flowers every Spring when he was a child.

"When he was 12, he wanted to be a farmer, so he & my dad planted a wheat crop. Jeremy worked from sun-up to sun-down all summer that year. He wheeled & dealed to rent fields, purchased a combine (my dad already had several tractors), & made appointments with the granary, & talked to stock brokers to sell the wheat/grain, then sold the stalks to a landscape business. Plus, the fields were beautiful! (I might can find a picture of them) Jeremy has a 'green' thumb--agriculturally & financially!

"He still plays in the dirt at 22, dirt track racing, that is! It is his hobby & passion. He graduated PTC w/ Assoc. degree in Machine Tool Technology & is employed by Eaton in Greenwood.   

"My daughter Jennifer, never cared for flowers or plants, but now that she is employed by J&P she is learning all about them & has a 'growing' interest in flowers & plants! She planted/designed some of the flower containers/planters outside at J&P that are for sale & was proud of the final products & enjoyed planting them!

"So, all three of us have a connection, in a sense, to Park Seed--great memories!"

"Thanks!
"Celeste"

Happy Mother's Day, Celeste! And to all the other mothers who love sharing the joys of gardening with their families--ladies like Joan Wikersham, Lisa E., and  Gertrude "Bunny" Foster.

If your mother taught you to love gardening, or if you are sharing your love of digging in the dirt with your own little ones, I'd love to hear from you! Send pictures and stories to me at ckuhl@parkseed.com, and I'll share them here.

When Stephanie Was Just A Seedling

Here in the Park Seed Memories blog, I've had a lot of fun talking about "The Queen of Seeds," my friend Stephanie Turner. Stephanie is indeed the Seed Queen because of her role as Director of Seed Product, the mastermind behind selecting the 1,000+ varieties of seeds that we sell. She's a big believer in the slogan that the National Garden Bureau likes to promote: "great gardeners use seed."

Well, I have a theory that great gardeners themselves grow from seed. That is to say, most really good gardeners that I know started playing in the dirt at a very early age.

To help support my theory, I've gotten my grubby little mitts on some photos of Stephanie taken long before she became queen. As you can see, even as a mere princess, she liked being surrounded by flowers!

Although these photos don't prove it, I'm guessing her Mom never had any trouble getting her to eat her vegetables, as long as she got to grow them herself.

These shots of Stephanie as a little sprout inspire me to ask all you gardeners out there--when and how did you first get into gardening?

Am I correct that getting kids out into the garden early is the key to developing a love for growing things? Or did you find your way into gardening later in life? Perhaps after your kids were grown and you had a little more time to yourself? Please let me hear from you! And if you have pictures of yourself or your kids discovering the joys of digging in the dirt, email them to me at ckuhl@parkseed.com.

Intrepid eComm Explorers Find Second Letterbox in Park Seed Trial Gardens

If anyone here enjoys a challenge, it's is certainly our eCommerce Team. So when Audra Irick, one of our web designers, spotted my challenge to find letterboxes hidden in our gardens, she immediately organized a search party. "I've never heard of letterboxing," said Audra, "But it sounds like a cool hobby. I've got to find our other letterbox!"

Audra began her quest by studying the letterboxing website to find clues. She was amazed at the number of letterboxes in our area, including Greenwood and nearby towns Ware Shoals and Ninety Six. Eventually, she located a clue about a letterbox concealed in our 9-acre Trial Gardens.  Click here to see the clue.

With clue in hand, she rounded up some fellow eComm adventurers to sally forth into the gardens and see if they could unearth the mystery box. Copywriters Hope Ott and Denise Bruner [above left] promptly headed out down the trial rows in search of the elusive "winter garden" sign mentioned in the clue. Once they found the winter garden, they worked through the rest of the hints and, to their delight, located a letterbox!

Audra and fellow web designer Roberta Gladden are shown at right holding the box. "It's a little one!" noted Audra. According to letterboxing protocol, it contained a tiny notepad and a stamp with a unique icon. As with the first letterbox we found, the box also contained a message to the finders:

"Please do not destroy. Enjoy the contents and replace where found, hidden from view. To learn more about letterboxing visit the letterboxing website www.atlasquest.com."

Having studied up on letterboxing etiquette, Audra knew that the group needed to document their achievement by stamping the letterbox notepad with a unique icon--or signature stamp--representing the finders. Since this was their first letterboxing experience, the team didn't have a stamp icon handy. BUT, ever-resourceful Hope was there to lend a helping hand...or finger, more precisely. She left her fingerprint on the pad, and Roberta, with encouragement from Denise, noted the date and other particulars.

After admiring stamped images and comments from other letterbox finders, they closed up the box and carefully returned it to its hiding place...where it remains, just waiting for YOU to come visit Park Seed and try your own hand at letterboxing. Even if you don't find the box, you'll enjoy trying!

If you are a letterboxer who enjoys gardens, I'd love to hear from you. Give us clues to your favorite garden locations or local Greenwood letterboxes so that our budding boxers can have another adventure. Email me at ckuhl@parkseed.com.

How Many PhDs Does It Take to Open a Seeds in Space Seed Capsule?

Clearly, a 140-year-old company that has been partnering with NASA since 1983 is a company that always enjoys trying new things. The latest new thing that I'm working on as Special Projects Director for Park Seed is video.

A talented student from Piedmont Technical College is working as our videographer, and on her very first day of work, I asked her to film Dr. Kinard's visit. I further challenged her to create a video of the event that would tell part of the story of our Seeds in Space adventures. I think you will enjoy the result. And as you will see in the end, our clever student found a way to get herself into the act. So click here and enjoy our first-ever official Seeds in Space video!

Mail from The White House

It's not every day that you get an envelope that has The White House, Washington, D.C. as the return address. So Ron Breazeale, Park Seed Company's fabulous photographer, still remembers when the big, brown envelope arrived in 1992. Turns out that it contained a photograph of President George Herbert Walker Bush being given some packs of tomato seed.

But not just any old tomato seed!

President Bush is receiving packs of tomato seeds that spent six years in outer space as part of NASA's  Long Duration Exposure Facility test, or as we think of it here, the Seeds in Space LDEF adventure.

The mission that deployed the LDEF was officially known as STS-41C and was manned by Commander Robert L. Crippen, Pilot Francis R. Scobee, and Mission Specialists George D. Nelson, James D. A. von Hoften, and Terry J. Hart. I suspect that the astronauts shown above are the crew from the flight that retrieved the LDEF after its unexpectedly long stay in space. That would be mission STS-32, led by Commander Daniel C. Brandenstein, Pilot James D. Wetherbee, Mission Specialists Bonnie J. Dunbar, G. David Low and Marsha S. Ivins.

A big thank-you to Ron for sharing this artifact with us. He was helping me with another project that you'll probably see popping up here before too long--a video clip showing the seeds from one of our current seeds in space projects being delivered and opened right here at Park Seed's National Headquarters in Greenwood, SC.

If you are a student or teacher currently involved in NASA's Engineering Design Challange: Lunar Plant Growth Chamber, I would love to hear from you and share your story just like we did with the fine folks at The Orchard School in Indianapolis. And if you are fascinated by the idea of space seeds, visit NASA's site for teacher resources to find out how to get involved. I'm looking forward to hearing from you! Email me at ckuhl@parkseed.com with your out-of-this-world gardening stories!

Catalogs from Here to Fargo!

Like good business people everywhere, many of us here at Park Seed Company work hard at measuring and monitoring what we do. How else will we know if we are doing the right things right, right?!

Last week, my colleague Jason, Director of the Catalog Creative Department, was gathering some numbers about his segment of the business. He was documenting all the logical, normal numbers one needs about catalog production. But at some point, his mind began to wander..... (you know how those creative types are!) He started diddling with the data, and came up with some mind-boggling ways to think about the Park Seed and Wayside Gardens catalogs that we produce and mail. So here are some amazing factoids about the catalogs we produce in one year:

* If you laid all the Park Seed and Wayside Gardens catalogs end to end, they would stretch from here in Greenwood, SC all the way to a point midway between Fargo, North Dakota and Grand Forks, North Dakota. (Any North Dakota gardeners getting our catalogs? Tell me what you are growing out there! Email stories and pictures to ckuhl@parkseed.com!)

* If you stacked up all the Park Seed and Wayside Gardens catalogs, the stack would stretch 18.76 miles. To get a feeling for how that is, just think of 79 and 1/4 Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other.

*If we were to mail all of those catalogs at United States Postal Service first class rate, it would cost us $10,295,947.20. No wonder we ship bulk rate!

You may ask, "Why print and mail so many paper catalogs? Doesn't everybody buy plants, seeds, and gardening accessories online these days?" Actually, yes, the majority of our business now comes in via the Internet.

BUT we have found that most gardeners really like to kick back with a nice, juicy catalog to study the pictures, read the text, mark their favorites, and dog-ear the best pages, all while sitting in their easy chair. When they have finally made their final selections, they then go to the Internet and use our Catalog Quick Order function to quickly and easily submit the order.

So what happens to all those old catalogs after their season has passed? Well, we hope that you will recycle any catalogs that you don't want to keep. But based on 140 years of experience, we know that some folks just find our flower books too pretty to pitch, and they keep them for years and years, like Camille in Florida did!

If you have vintage Wayside Gardens or Park Seed catalogs that you are willing to donate to our budding corporate archive, please let me know, at ckuhl@parkseed.com. Thanks!

Happy Birthday, Paul Harris!

I've just returned from a training session for Rotary District 7750, and so I've got Rotary on the brain even more than usual! Today is the birthday of Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary. He was born on April 19th, 1868, the very same year that 15-year-old George Watt Park founded Park Seed Company.

As it turns out, like George Watt Park, Paul Harris was comparitively young--only 37--when he had the idea that grew into Rotary International. He was only 44 when his two-year term as President of the International Association of Rotary Clubs ended in 1912 (later in 1922 renamed Rotary International).

After 1912, Paul Harris had no formal position in Rotary. However, he was the Founder of Rotary and continued to influence and inspire Rotary for the rest of his life, until he passed away in 1947. Clearly, Paul Harris's vision and leadership created the spirit in Rotary as we know it today. Here are some examples of Paul Harris's wisdom:

"A well-ordered mind is a possession more valuable than unlimited riches."

"It is just as easy to acquire the habit of speaking kindly as it is to acquire the habit of speaking unkindly."

"Perhaps dreaming is not so bad if one dreams good dreams and makes them come true."

A while back, I mentioned on this blog about how he planted friendship trees around the world. I'd love to start a tradition of planting trees in honor of Paul Harris's birthday...maybe something like that Dogwood (above left) or the Red Horse Chestnut (above right) from Wayside Gardens.

Happy 140th Birthday to Paul Harris! His spirit lives on and I believe that it will continue to influence Rotarians for many years to come.

Hooray for Letterboxers!

Earlier this week, I introduced you to the hobby known as letterboxing, which involves people hiding containers in special places and challenging other folks to seek and find them. As it turns out, the boxers are a fun and friendly community! 

Zoemomma's daughter posted a message in the www.AtlasQuest.com forum alerting her fellow boxers to the blog post. My traffic reports showed a happy little spike from their visits, and their comments in the forum were very kind. As a result, I even received an email note from a boxer who lives just up the road from us:

"I am one letterboxer who lives in GreenVILLE county who traveled to GreenWOOD to find letterboxes.  I have found one at Park Seed. The other has been more recently planted, so I have not had the opportunity to look for it yet. 

"If Zoemomma's box had not been there, I would have never visited your beautiful park.  My grandfather and father are avid agriculturists in Virginia - my grandfather has grown things others have said couldn't be grown in his area.

"Thank you for your lovely gardens. I enjoyed my visit - all in the quest for a letterbox.

"Paula U (aka Woody Clowns)"

Thank you, Paula, and all my new letterboxing friends! I hope you will visit this blog occasionally and definitely come to the Park Seed Trial Gardens to look for our letterboxes. Or perhaps add another of your own!

If you come on a weekday during the day, be sure and come into the Garden Center and tell them that you want to meet Claire, so I can come and shake your hand and get you to stamp my logbook.