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RP: I'd like to talk a little bit about your father's nursery in Montebello. Did he specialize in specific crops? What do you remember him growing there?

MN: Oh well, different periods of time he had different things. My first recollections are when he used to do cut flowers so he'd have good gardenias, camellias, and take them to market on Wall Street. And besides that he would have potted plants for, seasonal potted plants. Like cyclamens, poinsettias for Christmas, Easter lilies, and gosh, I don't know. A lot of other stuff. But, but though, but I remember those, those seasonal plants were, you know, he had to time them to bloom at a certain time so he would spend a lot of hours, you know, in the greenhouses regulating their growth so they would bloom when they were supposed to. And after that he got into azaleas, camellias. After the war we got into some green indoor plants, philodendrons and...

RP: And he grew most of his own stock?

MN: Uh-huh. Yeah, he was strictly a wholesale.

RP: Wholesale grower?

MN: Wholesale nursery, Uh-huh.

RP: He sold to other nursery, retail nurseries and landscapers and...

MN: Right, right. And it was just about that time when, when that eminent domain came and the school wanted our property. And so we were forced out of Montebello, and to them, they just wanted the land. We had all these greenhouses but they weren't interested in greenhouses or the house or anything. They just wanted the bare land. So I guess, you know, we didn't get the value that, you know, we thought we needed. But luckily, he like to buy land. And so he had, he already had some property in Sierra Madre. And so we were able to move whatever we could up there.

RP: Were you able to move the greenhouses?

MN: No, no. We, we never did... Sierra Madre was mostly lath houses. So I think by then we were probably out of the greenhouse stuff. And... I don't know if I'm recalling right. I guess we were more into camellias and azaleas than... oh, but wait. Before the war, he had property in Sierra Madre. He had Camellias up there. And that's where... you've heard of Descanso? That's where, I guess, Manchester Boddy came in. And, to put it his way, he just bought everything... all the, all the...

RP: Manchester Boddy?

MN: Yeah.

RP: The editor of the Los Angeles newspaper.

MN: Yeah. But to hear my brother tell it, it was more like he, well, I don't want to, I don't want to use the wrong words. [Laughs] But, but we probably didn't get, you know, what they were actually worth, you know. And he got 'em for a song.

RP: So Boddy bought up your...

MN: He bought up the camellia stock.

RP: Your father's...

MN: Yeah. I don't, I don't know if the azaleas were involved or not but, but it's the camellias that, you know, they're, that's featured at this...

RP: Did he buy the land, too?

MN: No, no.

RP: He just bought out the...

MN: No, we kept the land. So that's why we had to move, why we were able to move the Montebello nursery. And that was like in 1954, somewhere around there. And by then my dad was already... ooh, how old was he? He was already in his (seventies). So my older brother had taken over and then my, I guess Sam and I both helped, I mean, worked, worked in the nursery. And my dad just kind of did his own thing at home. He was living in Altadena at the time. But he had a home, he was growing wisteria and, let's see...

RP: Was the family a pivotal part of the nursery operation? Did you, yourself and your brothers and sisters work in the nursery or help support it?

MN: Yeah, from the time we were in... well, see, from when, right after the war in Montebello, my older brother was working it mainly with other managers. And then I got involved after, after going to school a little bit, as a bookkeeper. And then the rest of my involvement with the nursery was bookkeeping.

RP: Before the war you...

MN: No, before the war...

RP: You were just going to school?

MN: Yeah. Before the war I was, that was before going to Manzanar, I was a teenager, yeah.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.