http://blog.plantdelights.com/...

Thanks Dave!

Thank you Dave, that was a lovely story about a unique and interesting man. May God Bless and keep him.

Very interesting story of Richard Dufresne who loves gardening. your story shows that richard is one of the special person for you.

@BrownJames, that blog link came from Plant Delights Nursery.

It is interesting story. Thank you for this.

A seriously sad story and an embarrassment to our society as a whole. Such a shame to allow a fellow human being to fall through the cracks like that. Makes me so angry.

Tried to look up the salvias he hybridized in the database, maybe I am not getting it... but do those not list a hybridizer such as the iris or daylily forums do ? Was looking for a list of his things?

No it's not set up for hybridizer because there isn't an official registry for them.

There are so MANY of them, I never would have thought that. Very sad for him, because from what I dug around on google and found, he had hybridized some very popular salvias, probably never got any real recognition for it, and maybe no real money. I don't know if he had any patented plants, but it is VERY expensive to patent something.

It is sad. We also knew another man who had about the same life story. He lost his jobs and although he was very bright, he ended up homeless, selling his paintings for food money. He had done very well in the astronomy field in his early days.

When I read the name, I recognized it! I had purchased salvia plants from him years ago through his World of Salvia online site. I had no idea about his mental issues. He was truly brilliant when it came to his knowledge of salvia cultivars. He was the Salvia Guru at that time.

Richard's life story actually reminds me of my uncle, who lived a similar lifestyle. (But his brilliance was in restoring antique motorcycles.) Similar sad story because of some state of mental illness.