Chris Wiesinger
Chris started his horticulture career un-officially when given his own garden of cannas and vegetables in his Houston home where he spent his early years. When his family moved to California, he took up gardening again,
eventually making money through mowing lawns and dead heading roses for numerous Bakersfield gardens. In high school he was awarded a "campus beautification award" that was developed to honor
him for the garden he created with roses, bulbs, and other annuals at the entrance to the school grounds.
After one year studying horticulture at Bakersfield College, he transferred to Texas A&M, where he studied horticulture for 4 more years. His emphasis in Floriculture led him to the study of vegetative annuals under
the direction of Dr. Terri Starman. With her guidance, he presented an award winning paper at a regional horticulture competition on the use of growth hormones and their affects on regulating the sizes and shapes of popular
annual plant materials. Upon graduation, he was awarded the top honors as the outstanding Floriculture Graduate.
For a senior level horticulture class, it was required that a business plan be written on the structure and execution of a potential wholesale or retail nursery business. Chris took his love of bulbs and wrote a plan that
fulfilled the need for bulbs that act as perennials in warmer climates. After a two month internship with Hines Nursery in Houston, Chris began the project he had dreamed of.
Many of these bulbs are heirlooms and classics that once existed, but have long been forgotten in the market. The idea of preservation soon took hold, and these bulbs have now been "re-propagated" and re-introduced into the market.
In 2006 he was honored as a "Top 50 Tastemaker" by House and Garden Magazine and featured in a two page July New York Times article as "The Bulb Hunter." That fall he spoke at over 30 garden events and
continues to travel furiously across the South.
Chris is a 2004 Horticulture graduate of Texas A&M University, where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets and a Ross Volunteer.
B.S. in Horticulture, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Horticulture Studies, Bakersfield College, Bakersfield, CA
Honors and Speaking
House and Garden Magazine 2005 "Top 50 Tastemaker" (April 2005 Issue)
New York Times feature story in House and Home Section ("The Bulb Hunter"-July 2005)
Presented at over 30 garden clubs and groups in the fall of 2006 among others to include:
- Address to Potomac Chapter of National Rock Garden Society at the US Botanic Garden in Washington DC - January 27, 2007.
- American Museum Society - November 13, 2006.
- Peckerwood Garden Conservation Foundation - November 11, 2006.
- Antique Rose Emporium - November 4, 2006.
- Oktober Gartenfest Garden Symposium - October 28, 2006.
