REEDS, Missouri — Chances are good that many of the peonies, daylilies and iris in floral bouquets and front yards coast to coast got their start at the Gilbert H. Wild and Son nursery, a Jasper County business whose roots go back 130 years.
"The story goes that a German immigrant on his way west to California got this far and his wagon broke down. He loved the Ozarks, and he founded the Sarcoxie Nursery," said Greg Jones, who owns an offshoot of that nursery, which purports to be the largest seller of peonies in the world.
That German immigrant, James Hermann Wild, had a son, Gilbert, who in 1885 paid $45 for a crate of peonies from Europe that launched the business, The Joplin Globe reported.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: The Joplin Globe