Sunshine Farm and Gardens: Rare and Exceptional Plants
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Home : About Us : Biography of Barry Glick


  Barry Glick has been involved in the plant world since 1954, when at the young, impressionable age of 5, he witnessed Don Herbert (Mr. Wizard on TV) put a cutting of a plant in a glass of water only to sprout roots a few shows later. Barry replicated the experiment with his one of his mother's prized Coleus plants, and as he watched the roots grow, knew that he was hooked for life.

Growing up in Philadelphia in the 60s, a Mecca of horticulture, Barry would hitchhike to Longwood Gardens before he was old enough to drive. In 1972 he realized there was just not enough room for him and his plants in the big city environment, so he bought 60 acres of a mountaintop in Greenbrier County West Virginia where he gave birth to Sunshine Farm & Gardens, started his plant collection, and has remained there since.

The collection now numbers more than 10,000 taxa, many unknown to cultivation. Several of these plants have been introduced to gardening in recent years. Barry exchanges seeds and plants with people at Botanic Gardens, nurseries and private gardens in virtually every country in the world.

In 1993, Barry and several other gardeners, lecturers, authors and horticulturists joined forces to form the North American Plant Preservation Council. The NAPPC is modeled after England’s National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens. The council lists important collections of particular genera of plants at private and public gardens in North America. Barry is an active member of about 75 horticultural societies. He lectures extensively both in the US and abroad on the subject of North American Native Plants.

In 1995 he developed a hands on propagation workshop called "The Joy of Propagation" or "Everything That You Wanted To Know About Propagation, But Were Afraid To Ask". The 4-hour workshop was first presented at the 5th annual Millersville Native Plant Symposium at Millersville University, Millersville PA. Barry has been invited back to give the workshop again at the 1996, 1997 and 1998 Symposiums. The popularity of the workshop has lead to its presentation at several other venues. At this time a two-hour commercial video based on the workshop is in the planning stages.

Barry is the editor of the Internet’s on-line magazine for serious gardeners, the Cyber-Plantsman. He also maintains several other World Wide Web sites for Sunshine Farm and Gardens - //www.sunfarm.com , The NAPPC and his breeding work in the genus Helleborus.

Several articles have been authored and have appeared in the Garden Design, Brooklyn Botanical Garden Journal, Castanea, the Journal of the Southern Appalachian Botanical Society, many North American Rock Garden Society Chapter Newsletters, New, Rare, and Elusive Plants Journal in the UK, The Viola Society Newsletter and many more. A six-page article covering Native Terrestrial Orchids was published in Nov-Dec 1998 issue of Fine Gardening.

With a state of the art tissue culture laboratory, Sunshine Farm & Gardens is involved in experimental genetics on plant material, the goal of which is to develop new and better plants for landscape and the garden. The commercial arm of the operation provides high quality, unusual plants at reasonable prices to Garden Centers, Nurseries, Landscape Professionals and Home Gardeners Worldwide.

The display gardens at Sunshine Farm & Gardens were completely redesigned by Mr. Matthew Bishop of Devon England in 1993 and several thousand new plants were planted in the existing 24 year old garden. Visitors are welcome with advance notice.

The main focus of plant breeding at Sunshine Farm & Gardens is within the genus Helleborus. Barry has spent the last decade combing the Earth for new germplasm to enhance the bloodlines of his Helleborus x hybridus strains. Virtually every species within the genus is also grown. Barry maintains more than 50,000 flowering size stock plants for seed production.

Barry Glick is a summa cum laude graduate of UHK (University of Hard Knocks).

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Copyright © Barry Glick 1996-2024. All Rights Reserved.

Barry Glick, Sunshine Farm and Gardens
696 Glicks Rd, Renick, WV 24966, USA
Phone: (304) 497-2208
E-mail: barry@sunfarm.com

Last modified March 10, 2020
URL: https://www.sunfarm.com/biobg.phtml