Jack Schultz , News - Herald photograph .
There are few class in American horticulture with four generations of successful baby’s room crops . There are even fewer nursery legend with a chronicle so well remember as that of Jack Schultz , the 88 - year - old Schultz kinsfolk paterfamilias and founder of Springbrook Gardens , wholesale perennial growers , in Mentor , Ohio .
Jack ’s dad , Elmer , started Wayside Gardens in 1916 as a road stand . Sales were good . J.J. Grullemans became a partner in 1920 . Grullemans focused on sales agreement while Elmer Schultz preferred production . In the starting time the business was primarily sweeping . The partner shuttle back and off between product fields in Perry and Mentor , Ohio .
Jack Schultz, News-Herald photo.
Jack started pulling weeds for Wayside Gardens as an 11 - twelvemonth - old in 1939 . He wish the work . By the eld of 13 he was go a gang of 20 kids . Jack said , “ Dad secernate me I could get more piece of work out of them than any human race could . ”
In the early days , an estimated 60 % of the Wayside sweeping production was shrubs . Schultz and Grullemans had a large declaration with C.W. Stewart of New York for “ 20,000 of this AND 20,000 of that . ” They grew 500 - 600 varieties of woody industrial plant and perennials .
Wayside Gardens ride out afloat during the Depression . “ They went into the cherry-red one year , ” Jack said . And that required cutting wood and doing anything to keep the work party working .
Elmer Schultz sold his part of Wayside Gardens to J.J. Grullemans in 1945 for $ 100,000 . Son Jack stayed on . He loved nursery life . One day he was working with a work party , and his dad come along and said , “ What are you puzzle out so hard for ? ”
Jack tell . “ Holy Christ , you never told me that before . It ’s my line . ” His pa want him to discontinue , but Jack was happy with the body of work . “ I was making 75 penny an hour . ” When his dad sell his Wayside portion , Jack articulate , “ I went to Grullemans and said , ‘ I want a buck an time of day . ’ And they gave it to me real prompt . ”
Elmer , determined to get his son out of the nursery clientele , compact Jack off to the Greenbrier Military School in Lewisburg , West Virginia in 1945 . Jack was 16 . While he was away his dada get down produce plants around the house in Mentor , which became the start for Springbrook Gardens . “ I only pop off to Greenbrier one twelvemonth . I could n’t stand it . I liked the military ; I hated school , ” Jack said .
Jack come home . He and his dad incorporated Springbrook Gardens in 1946 . The property in Mentor grew to 20 acres and finally to 53 acres . The land was bountiful . Elmer Schultz drilled Delphinium hybrid source into the fertile soil . “ We trim back 10,000 flowering stems off that plot of ground ! ” Jack said proudly . And cryptically , “ I could never do it again , ” Jack added . “ I do n’t know why . ”
The one — and only — bumper crop of Delphinium cut flowers in 1947 was wonderful in another important sense . Jack Schultz met his Saint Bride - to - be while he was peddling the peak to local florists . Castello ’s Florist became a favourite stop . “ There she was . She came out of the office , wearing a plaid shirt that was tie in front of her . A icon of sweetheart , ” Jack recalls . Mary Jane Castello was 19 ; Jack Schultz was 19 . He was soft on . “ That ’s my wife , ” he said . They courted for three twelvemonth and were married in 1950 .
Jim Wosley ( L ) and Jack Schultz ( radius ) at Springbrook Gardens 1946 .
Jim Wosley (L) and Jack Schultz (R) at Springbrook Gardens 1946.
Springbrook Gardens , let in the tertiary generation of Schultz boys — John , Jim and Dave — began to produce their family business sector in the 1970s . The family stayed connect with Wayside Gardens . They declaration grew for Wayside and also picked up Spring Hill and White Flower Farm . “ We were doing a million poppies for Spring Hill every year , ” Jack said . “ When we were shipping poppy it was 80 or 90 hours of piece of work a week , ” Dave tell .
“ We also sign a contract with Wayside for somewhere between $ 60,000 - 75,000 a year , ” his dad added . “ That was a lot of money back then . ”
Wayside Gardens eventually became the great retail , mail - order glasshouse in the body politic . By 1960 , the catalogue stretched to 252 Thomas Nelson Page . Wayside Gardens was sell to George W. Park Seed Company in Greenwood , South Carolina , in 1975 . The original flagship Wayside Gardens in Ohio had nurtured young nurserymen who later start their own nursery — Bluestone Perennials , Bentley Nursery , Antioch Farm and Beardslee Nursery . Over the years between the eighties into the late 1990s , celebrated horticulturalists include John Elsley , Viki Ferreniea , Bill Funkhouser and Chris Hansen contributed their expertness to Geo . W. Park - possess Wayside Gardens in Greenwood , South Carolina .
Schultz kinsperson vacation were sometimes spent traveling to Litchfield , Connecticut , to see Bill Harris , the founder of White Flower Farm . Harris wrote the company catalog under the pseudonym Amos Petingill . Harris was an freaky , but he wish Jack Schultz . Harris invited the Schultz kin to last out at his dwelling house at White Flower Farm . “ Nobody believed I was break down to stay in his theater . He was eccentric , ” Jack said .
Harris tell the kids that there was n’t anything awry with stack . “ Mr. Harris , please , ” the protective pop say .
The fellowship turned in for the eve and was shortly awakened when they heard a whistling blowing outside . “ This is what they do in New York if you ’re in difficulty , ” Jack explain . He reckon out the window and see Harris dress in a nightgown and cap , holding a slaughterer ’s knife . The next aurora they learn he was sharpening a knife to make breakfast . “ We were frightened , to say the least , ” Dave said .
Floraland Nursery, St. Cloud, Florida.
The Springbrook business grew steadily . The original greenhouse words were 30 ” widely . Son Dave remembers when they ’d mark rows with a string and plant 200’-500 ’ rows — by paw . “ And then I ’d move the strand , ” Dave said . rowing after row . finally , the rows were tighten to 20 ” spacing and lastly to beds with 10 ” spacing between the rows . Son Jim developed a tractor - drawn , five - wrangle plantation owner . spare root crops were dig with a bed excavator .
In the eighties , Jack installed a geothermic heat heart in the greenhouse . “ We were the first one , ” Jack said . The annual cost for propane had been course around $ 18,000 - 20,000 per yr . “ And we did n’t heat very warm . ” The Modern geothermal unit brought the heating plant bill down to $ 3,000 . Springbrook recovered the price of the geothermic investment in “ one year and three months , ” Jack Schultz remembers .
It was quality that mattered most . Dave remembers they would be take an parliamentary law for 25 bare - root perennials of one salmagundi and he ’d get a tuner call , “ ’ bestow me one more . ’ Everything had to be done right . ”
Hurricane Irma damage.
Dave Schultz left the family occupation in 1998 to run Kurt Bluemel ’s Florida growing operation . Disney World ’s Animal Kingdom needed decorative grasses — lot of them . Millions of grasses were plant . Then the hippos and elephants were turned into their new African Savannah River and cursorily get down grazing on the new planting . No job . There were plenty more ornamental green goddess where they descend from — Floraland Farms .
Floraland Nursery , St. Cloud , Florida .
Dave Schultz bought Floraland Farms in 2016 . Disney remains a big customer . The Schultzes grow 100 different plant . decorative grasses top the nursery ’s inventory items . They do n’t do any flashy sales gimmicks . ( Neither did Springbrook . ) We ’re going to always keep up quality . We ’ll permit the plant do the talk , ” Dave said .
Jason, Jack and Dave Schultz 2017.
“ I give Dave all the reference in the macrocosm for come down here and run Bluemel ’s Florida mathematical process and eventually buying Floraland , ” Jack say .
Hurricane Irma damage .
The Springbrook Gardens dimension was sell in 2014 . The farm had become surrounded by development . The City of Mentor bought the position with plan to flex it into a parking area .
That ’s a very happy ending for one chapter of the Schultz nursery account , but it is n’t the end . Another generation has do along . Dave son ’s Jason has been working at Floraland for ten days .
Jason , Jack and Dave Schultz 2017 .
Hurricane Irma paid an unwished-for visit this past September . Trees were downed and buildings gravely damage . Plants were flip around .
The nursery still await on FEMA funding approval to rebuild barns , but the plants and nursery have endure .
The Schultzes do n’t quit . “ It ’s inbred , ” Dave said .
