Posts from — April 2009

The pink plastic flamingo was designed by Don Featherstone in 1957.

The Dogwood tree (Cornus florida) was first cultivated in 1731 (Dirr 1998)

Don Featherstone conceived the plastic flamingo while working for Union Products. His original designs were modeled from National Geographic photographs of the curious birds. In his own words from an interview in 1996 – “You can’t go locally and buy a flamingo, so I got some books, and one that had some good shots was National Geographic. I made the silhouette, then put on the clay and that’s how it all started.”

American flamingos have an expected lifespan of 40 years, one of the longest among birds.

Dogwood trees have an expected lifespan of  40 years, a fairly limited life among ornamental trees.

Plastic pink flamingos were in production for fifty years from 1957 until November 1, 2006.  Nearly 250,000 plastic birds were made each year.  Union products stopped the production in 2006 due to rising electricity and plastic resin costs. Public demand for plastic flamingos has soared since the closing.  While many imitations have been produced all have lacked the quality and attention to detail of the originals.

Returning flamingos…  In early 2007, HMC International LLC purchased the molds and copyright to the Featherstone flamingos.  Just as the originals, the new birds are available in pairs, one with it’s head up and the other with it’s head curved toward the ground.

Returning dogwoods… the American dogwoods have just started blooming this week at the National Arboretum – many are pink.

“I loved what I did, it’s all happy things. You have to figure, my creations were not things people needed in life, we had to make them want them. Things I did made people happy, and that’s what life is all about”

-Don Featherstone

buy pink flamingos

see pink flamingos

visit the National Arboretum