Dr. Henry Skinner was the second director of the US National Arboretum in Washington DC from 1952-1973. Earlier, he was curator of the Morris Arboretum from 1940-1943 and from 1945-1952. In 1951, he spent six months driving 25,000 miles through the southeastern and eastern United States searching for native azaleas, sending many plants and herbarium specimens to the Morris Arboretum. See Skinner archives for more information about him and the trip.

When he retired to Hendersonville NC, Dr. Skinner planted many of his selections in his garden. The pictures named "Skinner selection" are of his plants that remain, although their labels, provenance and parentage have been lost. The "Skinner seedling" pictures show seedlings of his plants that were raised and evaluated by Vivian Abney, East Fork Nursery, and the "SK" pictures are selections of those seedlings she is now propagating under those names.