Founded in 1868 by George Watt Park, Park Seed Company is a privately held mail-order gardening company based in Greenwood County. Park Seed Company specializes in garden seeds, offering more than 1,100 varieties of flower, vegetable, and herb seeds, plus a large selection of bulbs, live plants, and gardening accessories. It all started when a 15-year-old George gathered seeds from his mother’s Pennsylvania garden and sold them to his neighbors. From this humble beginning grew Park’s Floral magazine, which eventually had a circulation of over a million, and the Park Seed catalog, which grew to over 5,000,000 circulation.
How did this Pennsylvania businessman end up in South Carolina? Mary Barratt, whose family lived in what is now South Greenwood, was a County Home Demonstration Agent who wrote Mr. Park asking for some free seeds. He replied that he could not give away his seed, but he could give free advice! A two-year correspondence would follow, ending with Mr. Park visiting South Carolina, meeting and marrying Mary Barratt in 1918.
The facility that Park Seed uses today were completed in 1961 and has, like the business itself, been contenually updated to meet changing needs. The Park Facility, as well as the spaciouse Park Seed Gardens are located north of Greenwood on Highway 254. These Trail Gardens are the largest trial grounds in the Southeast. The Gardens are open to the public year round, but they are at their peak in June and July, with thousands of flowers, hundreds of vegetables, and scores of container plantings. It is in late June when Park Seed host its Flower Day, part of the South Carolina Festival of Flowers.
