A Pioneer Plant Breeder
Burbank was born on March 7, 1849 and died on April 11, 1926. Over the span of
his life, he became known as one of North America's foremost American
In 1875, at
the age of 26, Burbank sold the rights to the "best white potato"
to James J. H. Gregory and used the funds
to finance his move to California.
He experimented with thousands of plant
varieties and developed more than eight hundred named varieties and
strains over his fifty five year career. His improvement work included
fruits, flowers, grains, grasses, and vegetables.
This work included the introduction of new
varieties of tomatoes, corn, squash, peas, and asparagus. He introduced new varieties
of prunes, plums,
blackberries, apples, peaches, and nectarines. He also developed
a spineless cactus useful as a cattle feed, many new flowers, especially
lilies and the famous Shasta daisy.