MY STORY
Born in 1945, I was raised and educated on the East Coast, specifically in the small town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. I wrote and published a book about those first 18 years of my life (Growing Up In The Switzerland Of America). I spent fours years at what was then called Millersville State Teachers' College, where I earned a B.S. Degree in Education. My field of study was science. I then returned to Jim Thorpe where I married Dianne Wehr.
My career in education spanned twenty years in Pennsylvania (Tamaqua and Weatherly School Districts) and nineteen years in Washington State (Parkland and Eatonville School Districts). My marriage lasted forty-four years until Dianne passed away in 2013.
In 1979 my passion for dwarf conifers led to the start of a part-time, mail-order nursery business named Coenosium Gardens which we owned and operated for 36 years. I developed a close friendship with Jean Iseli, a nurseryman from Boring, Oregon, and in 1986, Dianne and I, along with 10,000 plants moved from Pennsylvania to the Northwest where the nursery business became my full-time job for six years.
In 1993, I reentered education in the state of Washington where I taught science for nineteen years.
During my thirty-nine years in the classroom, I taught all of the sciences to grades 7 through 12 and served as a department chairman for many of those years. I retired in June 2012.
Since 1974, I have been very active in the conifer world. In 1999 I was invited to present a paper at the Fourth International Conifer Convention held in England. I was the only presenter not associated with a botanical garden or academic institution.
Always the educator, I have written for American Nurseryman, the NARGS Quarterly, Fine Gardening, and the American Conifer Society Bulletin. I have also produced a popular video on the Grafting of Conifers. I also self-published five books about cultivated conifers and one about European beeches and English oaks.
One of the co-founders of the American Conifer Society, I served as its first President for five years.
The Coenosium Gardens Story
Coenosium Gardens had its official beginning in 1979, but my passion for conifers actually began in 1974. While I was living in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, I met a person who was selling some unusual conifers from a conifer collection that was on property he had purchased. I actually managed to trade a nice fern fossil for five very special conifers and my collection was started.
I traveled during the summers and made regular visits to a number of different collectors. The names form sort of a who's who of the conifer world. In New Jersey I would visit Rudi Kluis and Don and Hazel Smith. On Long Island I spent much time with Joe Reis and Eddie Rezek as well as Joel Spingarn, Alfonso Ossorio and Jim Cross. In Pennsylvania I struck up a close friendship with Layne Ziegenfuss and came to know Greg Williams from Vermont. Interestingly enough, Greg was the original owner of the collection that started me collecting conifers.
I also spent time in various arboreta and got to know Al Fordham at the Arnold Arboretum, Sid Waxman at the University of Connecticutt, Sue Martin at the National Arboretum, and J. C. Raulston at the now J. C. Raulston Arboretum in North Carolina.
These friends were sharing both in plants and knowledge. Coenosium Gardens was started with a philosophy that reflects a synthesis of their attitudes and approaches to life, plants, and other people. I decided early on that everyone should be able to share in the beauty of conifers. Coenosium Gardens had to be an ethical business that provided rare conifers to anyone wanting them.
Of course, Coenosium Gardens was also started for practical reasons. I was acquiring rare conifers from many sources. However, when one died, I would have trouble finding a replacement. I decided that I had to learn how to propagate my own conifers and duplicate new additions to my collection. That way, if one plant died, I did not lose it from the collection. I also figured that I could propagate some extra plants and sell them to cover my expenses.
Layne taught me to graft. I built a greenhouse out of 2x4's covered with plastic with a small bucket-a-day coal stove for hot water heat under the benches. I also used a Sears gas heater for backup. That greenhouse served me until Dianne and I decided to move to Oregon.
I made a number of plant friends on the West Coast. Gordon Bentham in British Columbia, Dick Bush in Canby, Oregon, and Jean Iseli in Boring, Oregon were three especially close friends. Jean offered me a position at Iseli Nursery so in 1986 I came west with two semi loads of plants (10,000 in all), and Dianne followed a week later with the furniture.
After ten years of various business and personal ventures Dianne and I found ourselves living in Eatonville, Washington and I returned to teaching science to eighth graders at a local middle school. Our life during that ten years included moving the nursery and collection from Boring, Oregon to Aurora, Oregon to Tacoma, Washington, and finally to Eatonville, Washington. I designed and planted a small arboretum (of two to five acres) in Boring, again in Aurora, and finally in Eatonville.
Dianne passed away in 2013 and I closed Coenosium Gardens in 2015. I had begun Coenosium Publishing in 2013 and have been using it to self-publish a number of books.
I met Thecla Siqueira in 2014 and we were married in 2018. We live together on a half acre in Puyallup, Washington. My conifer collection was sold with my Eatonville property and our present garden has about two hundred conifer cultivars. I am focusing on my writing and adding an occasional, very special conifer to our garden. I do very little propagation since I have given up my nursery, but I still keep busy on a number of conifer-related projects.
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