Jackson & Perkins Company

Jackson & Perkins Company Jackson & Perkins is an American company known for the cultivation of the 'World's Finest Roses.' Since its founding in 1872, Jackson & Perkins has grown to offer a wide selection of roses, live plants, garden accessories, holiday gifts and home décor.

The company's name came from the two partners who started the business, Charles H. Perkins (1840–1924) and his father-in-law, Albert E. Jackson (1807–1895). The company began in 1872, in Newark, New York as a truck farm selling strawberries, raspberries and grapes. Perkins became interested in the wholesale nursery business and he began selling vines and shrubs to nearby retail nurseries.

In 1882, Charles became fascinated with rose propagation. In 1884, he hired Alvin Miller as foreman of his newly evolving rose business. Miller, a hybridizer, was directed to develop a special rose new to the rose market. His first success, introduced in 1901, was the 'Dorothy Perkins' rose, named for Charles Perkins' granddaughter (later: Dorothy Estabrook). In 1908, this rose won top honors at the Royal National Rose Society. It also started a long tradition of naming roses for people. This rose has been mentioned by several authors in their works including F.S. Fitzgerald. Jackson & Perkins stopped marketing the original Dorothy Perkins rose because the plant was prone to mildew and disease. It is still available from specialty nurseries. To this day the Dorothy Perkins climbing rose adorns the walls of Windsor Castle.

Jackson & Perkins remained a family affair when, in 1928, Charles "Charlie" Perkins, nephew of the founder, succeeded his cousin George C. Perkins as President. He furthered the company's involvement in rose hybridization by hiring Dr. Jean Henri Nicolas, an internationally known French hybridizer, to head the new, expanded rose hybridization department. The family home at Newark, known as the Jackson-Perkins House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

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