The scoop on 'Akin Sherwood's Greenhouses'

i live at the opposite end of the road from sherwood. as a matter of fact ive had a lot of people mistake my place for the nursery and have directed them to the other end of the road to sherwoods place. sherwood passed away about 3 months ago.i learned an awful lot from him,he was just shy of 90 years old. he was an honorable kind and dedicated man.he was a rare person that i was proud to know and call friend. he will be missed, Brad

Now here is a man passionate about his plants. Most people even remotely approaching his age have already resigned to retirement while he continues on. A wealth of information, great stories and super service are what I received from him in our dealings. He stocks some hard to find plants and carefully packages the plants before shipping. The plants I have received from him by mail order were all in good shape and true to pot size. I would definitely recommend buying from him if you are considering it.

Mr. Akin is a wonderful resource for those of us who live near enough to visit his home/nursery. He has many 'fun' things growing and I enjoy all his 'goodies' very much. His knowledge is wonderful and I bought some Gumi berry bushes some years back and they are lovely plants with beautiful foliage and have provided both the birds and my friends with much good jelly and food.

I commend his garden to your attention. Mr. Scott is right about a visit with him

Pat

I have visited with and purchased from Mr. Akin several times. He is an octagenarian, a long-retired general store owner who still does hard manual labor in growing unusual and viable plants, and in personally loading these into your vehicle. His level of tree knowledge make him one of the living "greats" of American horticulture, a peer of Corwin Davis, Neal Peterson, Hector Black, T.O. Warren and a select few.

He has many plant patents to his credit, among them the Sherwood Jujube and the Super Spur Mayhaw and various landscaping plants. His interests include experiments with cold-hardy citrus: He has cultivated M119 Citranges that actually taste good, plus lots of work with 10-degree F. Mandarins. He has large Thomasville and Changsha trees growing in his yard (in a 248-day growing season region near the divide between zone 7 and zone 8) that survived (narrowly and without protection) the 3-degree F. freeze of 1983, and their fruit is excellent.

I have never purchased from him through mail order, but only by means of personal visit, which is always a memorable experience. Call first and see if he is available for visitors. Go expecting to learn a lot. His prices are market-comparable, but the quality is much better than average and the diversity is only matched by Hidden Springs in Tennessee and perhaps one or two places in the Northwest. You will find that he is more interested in teaching you than in selling his wares.

I hope Mr. Akin is with us a lot longer. He will be the definition of the adage that "the passing of a senior citizen is like a library burning."