Walter Parkola has been involved with Horticulture since 1970 when he started his own evergreen plant nursery on family property in Connecticut selling various Azaleas, Rhododendrons, Yews, and other Conifers to the landscape trade locally. Cut Christmas trees were also a big part of the nursery. This continued until graduation from college in 1978.

Upon graduation from college he pursued his engineering career for over 25 years working on such diverse projects as the Hubble Space Telescope, the world's first QR/XRAY scanner for airport baggage scanning for contraband such as narcotics and plastic explosives, Cardiovascular medical products, DNA identification and medical disease discovery products, and Nuclear detection systems for national security. He earned 6 U.S. Patents for his inventions through the years.

During his engineering career he wanted to return to his passion of raising plants, so as an additional side job, he and his wife Margot started Blossom Valley Protea in 1992 to provide cut Protea flowers, foliages and fillers to the San Diego market. They have earned an outstanding reputation for providing first class quality products (over 200 varieties) that are sold to both wholesale florists and retail buyers at local farmers' markets. Having done all of the hands-on work at their farm themselves, their experience and expertise has led to many consultations for various clients on the application of Proteaceae into the landscape.

They started raising plants several years ago to replace dead and diseased plants on the farm and have now decided to expand by providing these same plants to the public for their own landscape needs. They have been selling these high quality plants for over 8 years and have planted them in many gardens from the inland San Diego County areas to the coast. The results have been exciting and many of our first customers have come back each year for more and different varieties to add to their gardens.

We have worked closely with the Cuyamaca College Water Conservation Garden in Rancho San Diego to provide many of their plants as well as advising on their placement and care. Walter has given several lectures at the Garden to help the public make better decisions on planting their own drought tolerant gardens.Stop by the Garden and check out their selection. Daily admission is free! Blossom Valley Protea is also a member of the San Diego Horticultural Society.