Densho Digital Archive - Henry Nishi Interview I (denshovh-nhenry

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RP: So the house that you lived in at the second...

HN: On Western Avenue?

RP: Western Avenue site.

HN: Yeah.

RP: Yeah, did you have indoor plumbing and electricity there?

HN: Oh yeah, yeah. It was very small but we had all the, the...

RP: Amenities?

HN: Yeah, amenities, yeah.

RP: And can you describe your dad's nursery that he had there? Was it predominately... what types of plants did he, did he sell there?

HN: He, we had a, we had a greenhouse which, which, the greenhouse was the purpose for keeping indoor plants for the flower shop business. Then there was, the balance of the property on that, that lot was, was a shade house which we called a lath house. And it was mostly kentia palms, which were sold as, as houseplants and then also for, you rented the palms for the, the studio business.

RP: You mentioned that, that there was another, another nursery owner that most of his business was just renting plants to the, to the movie studios.

HN: Yeah, yeah, the... I remember the family name. It was the Deguchi family.

RP: Taguchi?

HN: Deguchi.

RP: Deguchi.

HN: Yeah, and, and his family, and the nursery was called Melrose Avenue Nursery on Melrose. It was, and his primary business was renting plant material for studio sets. And on Melrose Avenue there was one or two big studios.

RP: You said maybe RKO was there.

HN: I think it was RKO, I think it was RKO, I'm not sure, but that's one of the nurseries. And the other nurseries, it might have been Paramount, I'm not sure. It was Paramount, Universal. I know there was Warner Brothers, that was on... but that, but that was actually nearby, too. I think he rented to Warner Brothers, too, quite a bit. That was on Bronson Avenue on Sunset Boulevard, Warner Brothers Studio. I think it was later on that they moved to Culver City. I think, no, I think Culver City did have quite a few studios right, right from the very beginning. I don't remember.

RP: Can you tell us how, how large is a kentia palm? How large does it usually get?

HN: They get, they could get to, when they're old they could get to ten, twelve, fifteen feet high. But the ones that were growing in the lath house, for indoor use, were anywhere from a couple of feet to five or six feet high.

RP: You had, he had indoor plants for that clientele and also the studios and any other specialty plants that he grew there?

HN: No, no. It was pretty limited.

RP: Did he grow bedding plants, a lot of color?

HN: No, no.

RP: Uh-huh. And how about landscaping plants? Plants for...

HN: No, not... only because it took, it took a lot of space for growing... in the retail business it was more feasible to have the growers buy it, you buy from the grower... it's, it's a buy and sell situation.

RP: Uh-huh.

HN: Only when we moved out to, to the West L.A. property that we had plenty of space that he grew, he grew mostly for specimen, specimen trees, larger specimens for, for landscaping use.