I have lived in many places throughout my life. When I was in the military I had about 100 plants in my collection, which I moved from Omaha, NE to Dayton, OH, to San Pedro, CA to Montgomery, Al to Albuquerque, NM to Huntington Beach, CA and finally Long Beach, CA where I currently live.

When I was ten-years-old we visited my mother’s sister in Arizona where I remember seeing all the saguaros on the train from Flagstaff to Phoenix. My mother bought me a 12 plant gift package on the trip, which my father helped me pot in a planter and made me water them. I did not get really interested until I was a sophomore in high school and I needed a show and tell topic along with a written report. My dad suggested cacti . The only books in the library were encyclopedias at the time (late sixties), but I became hooked after doing research for my show and tell.

I added another plant to my small collection when someone threw one out of the second story window. This was during Christmas time at Grinnell College in Iowa and it survived. I planted all of my current plants in my sandbox at home during the summer, and stored them under timed plant lights in the dirt floor of the ash bin in our old farmhouse during the winter.

When I retired from my job, I had several hundred plants, but it really exploded when I moved to Long Beach where I have a quarter acre and began my own botanical garden. This is when I began selling at shows and other events as well.