<Begin Segment 14>

VY: Do you remember anything else about that time when you were driving?

NH: I saw a lot of California.

VY: Oh, okay.

NH: Yeah, different terrains and everything. And actually, I used to love to drive trucks because we had eight gears if we had to. And if you did it right, there was kind of a flow to it, I just liked that. But I was getting about thirty years old, I say, I'd better... so at that time, I was kind of committed to hang around. So I asked my uncle, I just can't drive anymore. He says, "Okay." He thought about it for two minutes, "You take over the personnel." Big mistake. I lost my first guy the first day.

VY: Why?

NH: I could see he's not doing things right, but he had been working there years. You don't do things like that, correct guys, especially (from new guys like me).

VY: So you saw him doing something incorrectly?

NH: Yeah, picks up something, transfers it right in. I'm used to working with both hands (at once), little things like that.

VY: So you corrected him and he quit?

NH: Yeah, about ten minutes later, walked out and never came back. Some guys don't like (to be bossed), some guys you have to do it.

VY: Sounds like you learned from that experience, though.

NH: Hmm?

VY: Sounds like you learned from that experience?

NH: Lot of learning. And I kind of managed the way I would like to manage. I don't like to be accountable for everything. I expect the guys to be self-starting and not have constant supervision.

VY: Able to work independently.

NH: Yes.

VY: How many people would be working for you?

NH: We averaged about fifteen, eighteen, the most we had was about thirty-five.

VY: And how big was the nursery?

NH: We had, at one time, 18 acres I believe, mostly greenhouses.

VY: Were they growing things in different stages?

NH: Yes. We always had a crop coming or overlapping.

VY: So who was responsible for managing that part, keeping track of the different growing stages?

NH: My cousin later came in, my cousin's husband. I turned that fuchsia section over to him which is the one crop... and my wife, I killed the "no females," she came in and worked part time, and she would work over there (in a different section).

VY: You got rid of the "no female" rule?

NH: Yeah.

VY: Okay.

NH: The female in management. We had female workers, but... so I told him he can run it independently. My wife, they did a really good job. In the afternoons, my wife would come into the office and do the paperwork, which I hated, but she likes it, did a good job on that.

VY: So good teamwork.

NH: Yeah. But overall, my uncle did other things, my dad did most of the maintenance. We built most of the greenhouses ourselves, we installed a boiler and things, we did a lot of the things on our own.

VY: How many greenhouses?

NH: Two hundred, two hundred fifty, three hundred square feet.

VY: And you grew a lot of different kinds of things, it sounds like.

NH: Yeah, like Christmas time, it pretty, dominated at least half the crop.

VY: So how long, what's the growing process for, say, a poinsettia?

NH: At that time... originally it was the way I told you, the small, but later the hybrids came out and it was easier to grow. So timing would be about five months initially. And we didn't have to stake it anymore, do additional work. And I guess what started the downhill of our type of operation is unfortunately the chain companies came and changed the makeup of your customers. There were fewer flower shops, fewer garden places.

VY: More larger companies and stores like Home Depot?

NH: Correct. Fortunately, you're a little bit like an independent grower, the large chains buy on consignment, so they don't care if the plant needs watering a lot of times. They just don't take that real personal care.

VY: Do you feel like the things that you grew changed over time because of that, because of the kinds of plants that the bigger companies were interested in having you bring to them?

NH: Well, what happened, like the poinsettia, for example, when we grew it, it was designed for the flower shops, which would be a gift, expensive gift. And even last year, things had been going two or three dollars for a final product. And I was at Home Depot buying a tool box or something, and the poinsettias, and the customers, they just lay it in their little buggy on its side. I know the leaves bruise easy, the color of the plants... so it became kind of a, I don't know what you call it, a cheap item. And it's for a decoration more than anything now.

VY: Not as precious.

NH: Yeah. So that kind of ruined the product.

VY: Does it bother you when you see things like that, when people don't take care of their plants and just tip 'em over on the side like that?

NH: I'm not going to get punched in the face. [Laughs]

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.