<Begin Segment 42>

AI: You had mentioned that you and your brother had some ideas of ways that you wanted to do things differently. What were some of the things that you did differently?

KO: Well, I think it was primarily in the growing area where we felt that we would have liked to try something else. Back in those days, you didn't have these seminars, and meetings where people would get together and exchange information; although it wasn't shortly -- it started to pick up about that time, so everybody had a pretty good idea of what could be done. But, I think that was the main thing -- what to grow and how to grow it. We let the selling take care of itself. And over the years we established a pretty good customer base.

RW: What were some of the different plants that you grew, that the Columbia Greenhouses didn't offer?

KO: Oh, I don't think we grew hardly anything any different. As I said earlier, everybody was growing everything, and gosh, I can't think of a crop that we didn't try. Although we didn't try cucumbers or tomatoes.

RW: Okay. You were talking about the main tools that you used? When you were at Columbia Greenhouses, did that start to change in that time period, when you started your business?

KO: Yes, definitely. People could start affording tractors and buying soil from other sources, a lot of new equipment that you could use to help your business. And carts to put, move plants on. So there were a lot of things going on. And right now, it's quite sophisticated, I would say, compared to what it was back in those days.

RW: You were growing inside the greenhouses and also outside?

KO: Correct. But eventually, cut flowers became out of date because they were shipping plants in from California, and cheaper. So, we quit growing cut flowers.

RW: Phased that out?

KO: Phased it out, and started in with other things.

<End Segment 42> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.