Perry Slocum

The Florida and North Carolina Years

By Peter D. Slocum, edited by Charles B. Thomas

Perry's dream to locate in Florida began during a 1949 vacation trip. In Winter Haven near Cypress Gardens he spotted a swamp bordering a gracefully curved road. But instead of seeing a wild swamp, he envisioned the beauty of a water garden display and production site. This would be where someday he might retire and still continue in the water garden business.

But still being only in his 30's, he figured that the reality would be to first reach retirement age at his current Binghamton, NY, location. After all, moving the business from the Marathon farm to the city required considerable effort. Another move would take considerable deliberation, being that Perry wasn't impulsive, other than once.

When Perry and brother Beryl had recently graduated from Cornell and both were headed for graduate school at Syracuse University, both wanted to go to the 1935 Chicago World's Fair, Dad (Floyd) said, “No!” That was too far away, and they must milk cows twice daily--except in hunting season. Beryl hunted with a gun, Perry with a camera. Beryl always maintained that venison tasted better than pictures.

Without telling Floyd, the two brothers arranged with others to milk the cows. Under the pretense of taking a short evening trip, they lured Floyd into the car. Soon, he fell asleep. Upon awaking, Dad discovered that they were Chicago-bound. Silence prevailed on the way out. But once there, all three enjoyed a fantastic time. Thereafter, Perry always carefully planned ahead time-wise and money-wise.

In 1956 Perry learned that the newly announced Interstate Highway System included I 81 that would go through Slocum Water Gardens. Being forced to relocate, Perry remembered his Florida dream, and meticulously explored making it reality. He began by searching for the several owners to persuade them to sell.

Owners of the parcels variously operated an orange grove, a couple of older homes, a cabin/motel on-the-lake operation with a curio shop, and a restaurant. The curio shop owner demanded that Perry not compete by selling curios, the restaurant owner required Perry to forsake operating a kitchen, plus he had to purchase an unwanted plot on the other side of the road.

Perry's 1949 meeting with Cypress Gardens' owner Dick Pope paid off in the 1959 negotiations. Pope and Perry developed a warm friendship based in part on their mutual respect for each other's promotion acumen. Only after Pope talked with the curio shop owner did he agree to sell. Pope's influence often made or broke a deal in those days. Buying the unneeded land across the road stretched Perry's finances, but he settled with each owner. A few years later Perry sold the unwanted plot for more than he had paid for the entire lot!

Perry completed the original concrete ponds in 1959. Between then and 1963 he returned to Binghamton for Christmas tree season, then back to Winter Haven for winter, to Binghamton for spring waterlily sales, then again to Florida during the slower time of summer. In between, he grew and trimmed the tree crop. Additionally, he operated an aquarium plant business. Perry maintained three or four business operations simultaneously.

During the 1950's, several New York friends photographed birds feeding their young in the nest. Perry remarked how boring it must be sitting still for hours awaiting birds to fly in at the right position for snapping a good photo. He also remarked that he would never waste his time doing something like this again. Nevertheless, Perry decided to try one nest. His picture won a gold medal from the Photographic Society of America. He was hooked. Then his developing passion for photographing nature overlapped all of his business operations.

Perry's incredible patience and keen artistic ability earned hundreds of awards. He became the world's number two nature photographer in the late 1960's and 1970's. He published his acclaimed Birds of North America and How to Photograph Them in 1971. Demand continues for Perry's waterlily, lotus, bird, and other nature photos to illustrate the likes of National Geographic Magazine, Time-Life Books, Airline in-flight magazines, and horticultural publications.

Slocum Water Gardens, Winter Haven, opened during the summer of 1963 as development of the property continued. In 1900 a sinkhole developed that formed the swamp known locally as Lake Rey. Like other sinkholes in the area, it featured a very unstable, mucky bottom unsuitable for waterlily production.

However, any property owner in the 1960's could hire a contractor to do whatever was wanted to alter swampland. Perry's contractor pumped out water and sand into a nearby lake, and then dumped in clean fill dirt contoured by bulldozer. Environmental restrictions prohibit such procedures today.

After two weeks of continuous 24/7 operations, and with the soft muck migrating to the edges, the curio shop/cabin neighbor demanded an instant, complete halt to the process. With most of his hoped-for objectives met, Perry pretended to all that his swamp modification project had reached his intended plan.

During 1963 Perry sold his New York interests, including houses, gardens, and tree plantation. Except for the tree portion, he very successfully continued his other expanding interests—pool plants, aquarium plants, nature photography, and travel.

The Slocum family continued to regularly visit members of the Tricker family (Tricker's) in New Jersey, Thomas family (Lilypons Water Gardens, then called Three Springs Fisheries) in Maryland, the Stetson family (Paradise Water Gardens) in Massachusetts, and the Schierer family (Schierer's Water Gardens) in New York. Benefiting from increased prosperity, the Slocum's visited the Ted Uber (Van Ness Water Gardens) and Martin Randig families in California. Travel expanded to England with a visit to Frances Perry and others. Other travel included Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Perry always sought pool and aquarium plants new to the American market.

In 1978 Perry sold Slocum Water Gardens to Peter. Following a long illness, Perry's beloved Trudy died in February 1979. He moved to the North Carolina mountains where he produced a plethora of extraordinary hybrids, mainly waterlilies, but also more than a dozen lotuses and several irises. He also found there a new bride, Maggie Belle Gibson. Moreover, he set up his newly acquired stepson Ben Gibson with the launching of Perry's Water Gardens.

Perry's first introduction was Nymphaea ‘Pearl of the Pool' (1946 plant patent 666) followed by N. ‘Pink Sensation' (1947). In 1962 he crossed Nelumbo lutea with N. ‘Rosea Plena.' He was so busy moving his nursery to Florida that he remained in suspense until 1964 to sprout the crossed seeds resulting in the superb N. ‘Mrs. Perry D. Slocum.'

A partial list of Perry's introductions include Nymphaeas [tropical day bloomers] ‘King of Blues' (1955), ‘Red Beauty' (1966), [tropical night bloomers] ‘Maroon Beauty' (1950), ‘Trudy Slocum' (1948), [hardies] ‘American Star' (1985), ‘Apple Blossom Pink' (1988), ‘Carolina Sunset' (1991), ‘Fantastic Pink' (1987), ‘Gold Metal' (1991), ‘Irene Heritage' (1988), ‘Perry's Baby Red' (1989), ‘Perry's Black Opal' (1990), Perry's Black Opal' (1990), ‘Perry's Cactus Pink' (1990), Perry's Crinkled Pink' (1989), ‘Perry's Deepest Red' (1990), ‘Perry's Double White' (1990), ‘'Perry's Dwarf Red' (1989), ‘Perry's Fire Opal' (1987), ‘Perry's Magnificent' (1990), ‘Perry's Pink' (1984), ‘Perry's Pink Beauty' (1989), ‘Perry's Pink Bicolor' (1989), ‘Perry's Pink Delight' (1990), Perry's Stellar Red' (1989), ‘Perry's Strawberry Pink (1989), Perry's Super Red' (1989), ‘Perry's Super Rose' (1990), ‘Perry's Vivid Rose' (1990), Perry's Viviparous Pink' (1990), Perry's White Star' (1990), ‘Perry's White Wonder' (1990), ‘Perry's Wildfire' (1990), ‘Peter Slocum' (198 4), ‘Ray Davies' (1985), ‘Red Sensation' (1991), ‘Venus' (1991), ‘Wow' (1990), ‘Yellow Princess' (1991), ‘Yellow Queen' (1991), ‘Yellow Sensation (1991).

Perry's Nelumbo cultivars include ‘Angel Wings' (1984), ‘Baby Doll' (1985), ‘Ben Gibson' (1988), ‘Carolina Queen' (1984), ‘Charles Thomas' (1984), ‘Debbie Gibson (1988), ‘Glen Gibson' (1986), ‘Gregg Gibson' (1985), ‘Linda' (1988), ‘Maggie Belle Slocum' (1984), ‘Nikki Gibson' (1988), ‘Patricia Garrett' (1988), ‘Perry's Giant Sunburst' (1987), ‘Perry's Super Star' (1988), ‘Sharon' (1987), ‘Suzanne (1988), ‘The Queen' (1984).

Perry and Peter Robinson with Frances Perry wrote the 322 page authoritative Water Gardening Water Lilies and Lotuses, 1996, Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, USA.

Copyright 2005 Peter D. Slocum and Charles B. Thomas

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