While some were raised with horticulture all around them and others realised their interest early enough to study the subject in college, as a young man Richard was on track for a very different existence, studying for a degree in business and finance.

But nature, it would seem, triumphed over nurture as Richard’s affinity with the outdoor world became apparent and a string of events led him away from the corporate office and into the fields.

Bobby and Richard (right) together with the Big Sky Echinaceas

This story takes place in and around Atlanta GA (in the USA), where as teenagers Richard and brother Bobby used to enjoy camping up in the mountains. While Richard was discovering his interest with the natural environment to the point of hosting educational ‘survival in the wild’ sessions with younger campers, the 3 years older Bobby was already carving out a career as a landscaper.

The brothers purchased some property up in their beloved mountain territory where Bobby used the land to store and propagate plants used in his landscaping work. As the plant collection grew and diversified so did Richard’s interest and involvement in the business.

Landscaping was hard work, and eventually Bobby stepped away from design and construction to concentrate on supplying plants to others in the trade and opened a wholesale nursery in the more customer-convenient location of Alpharetta.

By now Richard had become so enraptured with both growing plants and the chilled-out mountain lifestyle that he chose to stay on there and develop the nursery as a propagation and growing facility. Discovering that he had an eye for spotting interesting seedlings and mutations (sports), his interest in seeking these out became a hobby that the brothers affectionately refer to as ‘sport fishing’.

But ‘sport fishing’ naturally led to the curiosity of what possibilities there may be if you lend your own hand to what goes into the mix and Richard quickly discovered that breeding plants was really fun! He noticed the strength of the indigenous plants growing around the nursery location and his first project was to cross locally found wild Petunias with cultivated varieties to create bigger, tougher plants.

His first commercial success came from Hemerocallis ‘Moon Traveller’, a variety still very popular in and around the state of Georgia. Since then perennial varieties such as Coreopsis ‘Zamphir’, Monarda ‘Jacob Cline’ and Stokesia ‘Color Wheel’ to name but a few have made a big impact on the gardening scene alongside a portfolio that also includes annuals, tropicals, succulents and woody ornamentals.

But it’s the ‘Big Sky’ series of Echinaceas which are currently taking centre stage and thrusting this reluctant star into the limelight. Fortunately for Richard, and for the gardening community as a whole, elder brother Bobby is more than happy to spread the word about his sibling’s achievements while Richard kicks back at his mountain retreat and dabbles with the seedlings which we might all be talking about in a few years’ time.