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Looking Back
As 2012 grinds to a close, we welcome 2013 as our 65th year in this wonderful industry. It was 1948 when my parents, Pierce and Virginia, purchased their first nursery license and began rooting cuttings in raised beds in their back yard.
In the early years, Pierce kept his day job at a Chevrolet dealership, while Virginia stayed home to tend to me and my two sisters. I have vivid memories of my father coming home after a full day's work and plunging right into his"second job", constructing raised beds and shade structures, rooting cuttings, and having daily battles with an ornery old gasoline irrigation pump that never wanted to cooperate. I can't remember ever seeing him head back into the house until it was too dark to see outside. From this I learned that a nursery owner's day never really ends. By the time I was old enough to hold a water hose, weed a plant bed, and stick cuttings (for a dime a flat), they were teaching me the ropes.
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Booker Parham with B&B Burfordii Holly |
This was the fifties, the virtual Dark Ages of the industry as we know it now. For the first ten years of my life, I never saw a plant that wasn't grown in a field, then dug, balled and burlapped in preparation for sale. To this day, when I pass the NYP Corp booth at a trade show and get a whiff of that burlap and twine, it takes me back to those days so long ago.
The black men to whom my father taught the art of digging became artists in their own right. They could pace themselves and dig for hours on end because they knew their craft. Those of you who are familiar with this skill will know what I mean when I say it was almost like watching a dance to see these men work their way around a plant. After "sculpting" the plant out of the ground, you could slip it back in the hole and never tell that it had been touched. There was no wasted effort on the diggers' part and no wasted soil left over from the process.
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George Coleman With Bundles Of Honeysuckle Headed To The Train Depot |
Through the years, the men I remember were Big Bill, Tuck, Seay, Pharoah, Jake, Tim, Booker, Edward, George, Claude, Bobby, Calvin, Jesse, and Peter Rabbit. Some of them held down a full time job at a nearby Uniroyal plant, working four PM to midnight, and then came in to the nursery the next morning to put in four hours of digging before returning to the plant.
Though I didn't always enjoy the field work at the time, I have many fond memories of these fine people and this experience. You can learn a lot by hanging out with good men like these; there weren't any Ph.D.'s digging in those fields, but there was a lot of wisdom for those who would listen. Many have gone on to their heavenly reward now, and I'm quite sure that if the Good Lord has a garden up there, He is putting their talents to good use.
The years have flown by, and the nursery has evolved from field B & B production of woody ornamentals to container production specializing in groundcovers and perennials. Though I was blessed to have my parents with me and to work with them for the past thirty plus years, they are each gone now. My Mom passed away in January 2010 after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's and my father passed away quite suddenly this past July of heart failure at the ripe old age of 90. Though they are gone, the lessons they left by word and by example, continue in the way we conduct business and treat our fellow man.
Skinny Barefoot Kid
Who Used To Help Around The Nursery
Thank goodness for good people like my parents who seem to gravitate towards this industry, where your word is your bond and a handshake is better than a notarized contract; where we can go home each day, knowing that we have done something to make the world a little better, and where we can get up tomorrow looking forward to going back to work.
Thank all of you who have been our loyal customers for years and years as well as you whom we have only recently met, for each of you has played a role in making it possible for us to achieve this milestone in our history. May God bless you with good health and prosperity in 2013 and the years to come.
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