Obituaries : James C. Perry; Founder of Nursery Firm
James C. Perry, founder and retired president of Perry’s Plants, one of the world’s largest growers and suppliers of bedding plants, died Saturday in Somis, near Ventura.
He was 76 and had suffered a stroke.
Perry founded a small nursery in 1949 in Montebello that became a primary supplier of flowers and ground cover for Disneyland, Magic Mountain and Caltrans, which made Perry’s African daisies synonymous with freeways.
A former president of the California Assn. of Nurserymen and charter president of the Nursery Growers Assn., Perry also once headed the Horticulture Research Institute.
In 1979 he retired as president of Perry Plants and started a nursery devoted to the growth of the Protea , a genus of evergreen shrubs and small trees with colorful flowers the size of a hand.
He is survived by three children, five grandchildren and a brother, who ask that contributions in his name be sent to the James C. Perry Research and Scholarship Award, c/o California Nurserymen’s Assn., 1419 21st St., Sacramento 95814.
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