I’m a war baby. I was one year old when my father returned from the war in Europe. In my memory, the end of the 1940s and the early 50s were halcyon days.

I opened the Grass Menagerie doors on July 5th, 1975. The huge paned windows faced east and south and the sunshine poured in. Greenery filled every nook and cranny. My own Emerald City.

Stunned. Staggered. Paralyzed. Petrified.

My buddy Stu and his wife had moved to Denver so he couldn’t help me build my first greenhouse.

The years in my first greenhouse were the happiest years of my business life. Why? I had fallen in love, deeply and irreversibly in love. Love isn’t always about romance but it is about passion.