Thank You's and Shout Outs

I met Joe because of a small grant founded to help restore the amazing gardens at Joe's sprawling property and gardens. Joe was finally starting to slow down at 92, though you should have seen him FLYING around on his zero turn Deere for the yard, just awesome. I was offered the opportunity to work one day as a trial, I was doing tree work at the time and was intrigued by what I had heard about Joe. I crushed my first day, we agreed on an hourly rate and he gave me the green light to come whenever I wanted or had time to keep at it.

Joe was a horticulturalist and hybridizer of azaleas and rhododendron, creating and registering 20 different varieties of them. Joe was with me almost everyday while I worked there, telling me exactly what he wanted and how he wanted it done. His gardens had not only his varieties, but a collection of azalea and rhododendron unmatched in New Hampshire. He offered advice and information on literally every plant we were around, just loving that I was eating up as much knowledge as I could. He was the first hybridizer of anything I had met, and I was blown away by his knowledge and willingness to share it with me. He was the first person to discuss Daylily hybridization with me, but pushed me to try azalea and rhododendron because Daylily hybridization was "too easy" 😂. I spent two and a half years transforming his property and gardens to his standards. He really set the bar in my mind of gardening at "home", and opened my eyes to all the possibilities.

Besides his love of gardening and teaching, he basically had his hand in literally everything. Inventor, sculptor, horticulturalist, computer pioneer, soldier WWII, 4 term legislator for NH, train buff, consultant, teacher, preacher's kid, philanthropist, entrepreneur, woodworker, bibliophile, real estate investor, tree farmer, Arctic traveler, class president, husband, father, and Pop-pop…….the list goes on. He served as President of the Massachusetts Tree Farmer Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society and was a founding member of the Maine Coastal Botanical Garden. He was honored by the City of Dover in 2008 with the dedication of the Joe B. Parks Riverwalk Garden and by the American Rhododendron Society in 2005 with the Silver Medal. His rhododendron and azalea are shown there, as well as his own section in the USM botanical garden. To me personally, he was an absolute inspiration for what a person can accomplish and a gold standard for the gardens I had been dreaming about. It was an honor knowing Joe, forever grateful that our paths crossed.