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GREER GARDENS HISTORY

        Edgar Greer moved his family from Colorado to Oregon in 1952 to enjoy the milder weather of the Pacific Northwest.  At the time the former insurance company executive didn't realize he had relocated to a climate perfect for cultivating the dazzling flower that would make his name synonymous with horticultural excellence.

        Soon after settling in Eugene, Edgar began collecting roses, fuchsias, chrysanthemums and a plant he had never seen or even heard of the rhododendron.

        Edgar's son Harold was just a boy when his family began acquiring plants.  The youngster with a knack for science quickly found a way to combine his botanical curiosity with a burgeoning appreciation for beauty.

        At 7, Harold began hybridizing rhododendrons -- taking the pollen of a male flower and placing it on the female stigma of another plant.  His first attempt at the extremely challenging process was a colossal failure and belied the enormous success that would follow.

        "I just picked out the two rhodies that bloomed first for my first cross," Harold recalls. "one was a lepidote and the other was an elepidote. of course, they're incompatible. But that's how little I knew at the time."

        Harold kept on experimenting with rhododendrons and when he was only 15, he created a hybrid that he named Trude Webster in honor of a family friend.  In 1971 the American Rhododendron Society presented the hardy, pastel pink rhododendron with the society's first Superior Plant Award.

        Harold studied landscape architecture at the University of Oregon and then launched Greer Gardens in 1972 after the death of his father.  The nursery -- an outgrowth of that fortuitous move to Oregon -- is today an international seller of rare and unusual plants, and Harold, the president of the business, is a world authority on rhododendrons.

        Harold's book, Greer's Guide to Available Rhododendrons, has sold 30,000 copies and is now in its third edition.  The book is illustrated with pictures from Harold's horticultural photography, which have appeared in numerous books and magazines, including the cover of the Smithsonian.

        Meanwhile, Greer Gardens has gained a reputation as the gold standard for quality in plants.  To gardening experts and hobbyists from around the country, a trip to the family business operated by Harold and his wife Nancy is something of a pilgrimage.

        The 14-acre nursery and display garden that originated with backyard sales of a few extra plants to friends has grown into an enterprise offering over 4,500 different plants and an inventory virtually unmatched by breadth of varieties and sizes.

        Besides a brisk local trade, Greer Gardens does a thriving catalog business with customers residing in every state in the US and in many foreign countries, from Sweden to Australia and from Canada to Japan.  The Greer Gardens catalog, begun as a sketchy mailing to a handful of clients in 1968, has developed into a 160-page, illustrated publication, regarded as a reference for plantsmen throughout the world.

        The present focus of Greer Gardens is developing an informative and functional Web site and integrating it with the office to make all aspects of customer service even more timely and efficient.  At the same time, the nursery continues a time-honored commitment to bringing new and unusual plants to its customers here and around the globe.