N THIS age when one can actually fly around the 
entire world withm the span of several days— 
and always be within “speaking distance” of 
home—1908 seems to be a part of the long ago. And 
it is, for 1908 was the time of Theodore Roosevelt 
and William H. Taft, a time when the Victorian Age 
had just ended. 
It was as long ago as 1908 that Bertrand H. Farr, a 
flower-lover of Wyomissing, Pa., proudly issued his 
first catalogue of plants. His love of flowers was so 
great that he wanted to grow all the varieties he felt 
a garden should have. New Lilacs were imported 
from France and Tree Peonies from the Orient. 
Rare plants were collected from all parts of the 
world to make Farr’s the outstanding commercial collection of America. His own new 
varieties of Iris and other flowers gave Mr. Farr international prominence as a hybridizer. 
Of him Elbert Hubbard wrote, ‘He believes that a perennial flower, one that comes 
year after year, brings with its own sweetness, memories of pleasures past. And so most of 
Farr’s flowers are the live-forever kind.” 
Shortly after World War I thousands of evergreens were imported from Europe to 
start the Landscape Department, which by this time has beautifted thousands of homes 
in the eastern part of the United States. 
At about this time the Nursery was incorporated to'Increase its scope, and a few years 
afterward, a new Nursery location to permit increased propagation was found at Weiser 
Park, in the rich farming Iand of the Lebanon Valley. 
After Mr. Farr’s death in 1924 the stock of the corporation was purchased by three 
men engaged actively m the management of the Nursery, thus providing owner-manage- 
ment which assured first consideration being given to the welfare of its customers. 
Bertrand H. Farr was one of the very first growers to become interested in hybridizing 
Hemerocallis. One of his seedlings, Ophir, recetved the Award of Merit from the Royal 
Horticultural Society of England. It was only natural that Mr. Farr and Dr. A. B. Stout 
of the New York Botanical Gardens—another pioneer in the same field—should share 
their mterest m developing new Daylilies. It was agreed that the Farr Nursery Co. should 
mtroduce the new Stout Hybrids. By 1931 sufficient stock of these radically different 
Daylilies was propagated and the first Stout Hybrids were released generally, helpmg to 
complete the wide range of plants being grown at Weiser Park by that time. 
Today the acreage of Farr Nursery Co. at Weiser Park includes plantings of ever- 
greens, flowering shrubs, shade and flowermg trees, and perennials. In the thirty-five 
years of its growth the Nursery has achieved national prominence for its Daylilies, 
Peontes, Tree Peonies, Iris, and Lilacs, which are shipped throughout America. It has 
become the largest Nursery in Pennsylvania devoted mainly to landscape work for home- 

Owners. 
Life and color in 
the small garden as 
well as the large 
estate —with Day- 
lilies. 

