Biography

British gardener who collected plants in China on behalf of the Royal Horticultural Society. John Damper Parks (sometimes misspelt Parkes or Parker) was sent to Canton (Guangzhou) in 1822 or 1823 by the RHS in order to procure living plants, though he also took herbarium specimens. In Canton he was introduced to tea inspector and fellow collector John Reeves. Parks sent home a number of horticultural introductions, such as Camellia reticulata and the first aspidistra to be seen in England, A. punctata Lindl. (not the commonly known cast-iron plant, A. elatior Blume). He is also credited with introducing the yellow tea rose named Rosa x odorata forma ochroleuca (Lindl.) Rehder, which goes by the common name Parks' Yellow Tea-scented China. Parks returned the England in 1824 and did not carry out any further collecting expeditions. He was previously gardener to the Earl of Arran at Bognor and later worked as a nurseryman at Dartford, Kent.

Sources:
E.H.M. Cox, 1945, Plant Hunting in China: 58-59.

Biography

British gardener who collected plants in China on behalf of the Royal Horticultural Society. John Damper Parks (sometimes misspelt Parkes or Parker) was sent to Canton (Guangzhou) in 1822 or 1823 by the RHS in order to procure living plants, though he also took herbarium specimens. In Canton he was introduced to tea inspector and fellow collector John Reeves. Parks sent home a number of horticultural introductions, such as Camellia reticulata and the first aspidistra to be seen in England, A. punctata Lindl. (not the commonly known cast-iron plant, A. elatior Blume). He is also credited with introducing the yellow tea rose named Rosa x odorata forma ochroleuca (Lindl.) Rehder, which goes by the common name Parks' Yellow Tea-scented China. Parks returned the England in 1824 and did not carry out any further collecting expeditions. He was previously gardener to the Earl of Arran at Bognor and later worked as a nurseryman at Dartford, Kent.

Sources:
E.H.M. Cox, 1945, Plant Hunting in China: 58-59.