George Watt Park

Who was George Watt Park?

George Watt Park founded the Geo. W. Park Seed Company, Inc., more commonly known as Park Seed Company. George was born in 1853 in Libonia, Pennsylvania, one of seven children. While just a young child, he demonstrated great interest in horticulture, and his mother encouraged him to raise flowers in a corner of her garden. He successfully grew a variety of plants and learned how to harvest his own seeds from mature specimens.

When George Watt Park was 15, he bought a hand press and printed a list of seeds that he had harvested and wanted to sell. In addition to circulating his list to friends and neighbors, he also bought an advertisement in The Rural American for $3.50. The ad resulted in $6.50 in seed orders. With this success, the young entrepreneur learned one of the cardinal rules of business—"it pays to advertise." And so began the company that is now the oldest, largest family-owned mailorder gardening company in America.

Park’s first catalog in 1868 contained just 8 pages and used 2 illustrations—wood cuts of an aster and a pansy.