THIS BUSINESS OF OURS Mike Hemming

Transitions

If I was going to title this article, I’d call it Transitions. They have been on my mind lately. My own and others, planned and unplanned. Planned is best of course, unplanned can be rooted in tragedy. Or it can be just old age creeping up on people who are not thinking ahead. My own here is going quite well. I would say I’m quite happy with its progress. I have no doubts that I could retire tomorrow and my son and grandson, Larry and Robert, could handle our nursery. Part of this stems from our day-to-day operations proceeding normally. The part which makes me happiest is listening to their ideas for the future. They are both looking forward at possibilities of using technology and other progress. Solar power, computers, material handling and RDF figure high in the future they see. After some thought, I realized a few months ago that I needed to step back and let them move forward and fly, if you will. After all, I’ll be 79 by the time you read this. I still hope to be around making cuttings, pruning, even pulling a few weeds for a while longer, though. In truth, I am having a ball and very happy at the way things are going here. We have all seen generational changes in nurseries, but my thoughts have been caused by two examples going on close by on the peninsula. One is a generation change from father to daughter at Forest View Nursery in Delaware. A few years ago, I noticed that its operations were well, getting old. By that I mean they had less stock. What they grew was still quality and reasonably priced. It didn’t worry me. But I did notice and thought it was like what our nursery was doing before I shocked everyone and returned from the Navy. My father, thinking I was a career submarine sailor, was letting the nursery wind down to his retirement. Doing a transition in a declining business that way does create its own concerns and problems. Added to the change in leadership was the fact that I had decided to change to a container growing operation. My father concurred with this change. Unfortunately, he passed on before it was completed. It

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worked out okay in the end, but it was less fun at times. Susan, John’s daughter is now working with Terry and are making changes and doing things. I had already seen more field planting than before, and more container area brought in to production. Last week, when I was there, Terry was showing me their used poly houses they had bought and installed. He was excited. He firmly said the houses would be used only for winter potting of liners and stepping up container material. As I have long

been a proponent of winter potting, I was both impressed and glad. They may hit some rough spots, but I am sure they have a good future ahead. Another transition that is occurring is at Brusca Nursery near Sudlersville, MD. This sadly is occurring from a tragedy. Richard Brusca was killed in an accident leaving his daughter Lisa to take over completely. She was already involved in the day-to-day operation both in the office and the sales yard. It’s possible for a man or woman to run a nursery the size of that by themselves. But it could be a really stressful, too. She also got help for the field and container end of the business. Lisa had envisioned some of the changes being made there in the container portion and sales area of the operation in advance of Richard’s death. She said to me, “It was time to make some changes, you always need to look ahead.” What changes she has made have been practical and well thought out. In conclusion, if you have younger family members in your operation, is it ever too early to start the process toward

Above: Halifax Garden Gazebo Left: Harbor Below: European Weeping Beech Damage

Bambi barrier

their eventual take over? It’s one thing to teach them the ins and outs of everyday work but another to bring them in on the big and hard decisions. That includes listening to new ideas and encouraging trials of those ideas. I’ll tell you it gives me a sense of joy and pride to see it happening with us. In August, Flo and I took a cruise that was supposed to stop in three ports in Greenland. Bad weather kept us from making one port, which unfortunately was the capital city Nuuk. I can tell you now, I have never seen a place before so rift of possibilities for anything in our line of work. In the two ports we did stop in landscaping was just not done in any form. I saw only one house in Nanortalik that had anything that could be called that. It had three shrubs, two inside the fence the other outside, neither one identifiable from the distance I was from it. Also inside the fence was the stump of a very dead tree. It was a couple feet taller than the fence with a possible four-inch caliper trunk. No lawns, urns or pots with annuals or anything else of a horticultural bent at any house we saw. Natural plants except grasses were all short and sparse among the rocks. Some areas of threefoot grasses were along the shore. It was pretty in its own way, including ice floating in the harbor. The cruise had first stopped in Halifax, and we decided to go to the Halifax Public Gardens. It was beautiful, and probably the best public garden Flo and I have ever seen. The irony of it all, we saw our first mature healthy American Chestnut, in Canada. Castanea dentata is a very impressive tree when seen for the first time. This alone made the excursion to the garden worth the trip. Halifax Public Gardens are one of the finest surviving examples of a Victorian garden in North America. They were founded by the Nova Scotia Horticultural Society in 1836 and were recognized as a National Historic Site in 1984. The Halifax Public Gardens is also part of Canada’s Garden route. Flo and I walked all the paths enjoying all the beauty and care put into this wonderful gardens. Sadly, though the beauty was marred by senseless vandalism in July, the month before our arrival. That was when someone girdled 32 trees with an axe causing four to be removed. The trees were from 50 to 200 years old. They are trying to save the remaining trees by replacing the bark where possible and bridge grafting. How can people do such ugly things to places of beauty? Speaking of American Chestnuts or actually Dunston hybrids, I was given some seedlings. The waitress at a local restaurant gave them to me. She had bought the parent tree 15 years ago and it produced nuts which she germinated and grew on. She no longer had room to plant out more and gave me 20 plants. They were in 3-inch pots 12 to 15 inches tall. I brought them home and repotted them into 3-gallon containers. After all these years we will have some American Chestnut hybrids along with our Chinese seedlings. A

Above right: American Chesthut Below:Greenland Landscaping

Mike Hemming Eastern Shore Nurseries Inc 410-822-1320 esn@goeaston.net easternshorenurseries.com