“After the fire, a brand new packing house and storage bins were constructed. “The motto above the roof read ‘WE GROW FOR THOSE WHO WANT THE BEST.’” “In the summer the greenhouse gang, of which I was a part, made soft wood cuttings and stuck them in sterilized sand to propagate the various species,” said Rex Krider. “Evergreen cuttings were also made. Softwood cuttings were taken from parent stock in the fields, then gathered into bushel baskets and brought back to the green house, stripped of lower leaves and a 45 degree cut was made at the bottom of each stem. “Cuttings were then stuck inside ‘cold frames,’ which were long rectangular beds with concrete sides. “Upon completion of a frame, visqueen (a brand of polyethylene plastic sheeting) tents with an apex at the top were placed over the frame and irrigation from a mist pipe line within the frame operated on a timer system. “The evergreen cuttings were stuck in one of two greenhouses—one of which had a bench that was in close proximity to the overhead glass. “Either Ross or I got the job of sticking the cuttings while on bended knees and the outside temperatures in the eighties or even nineties. Perspiration flowed freely those days. “Fortunately the other side of the bench was the half that could be reached from the center aisle from a standing position.” “Another summer job entailed hoeing the young plants after they were transplanted from the cutting houses to the fields,” said Rex Krider. “Before they were mature enough to be planted in rows, however, they were planted in approximately six- feet wide beds. These tender transplants needed to be weeded by sitting on very low wooden benches. “This was very taxing on the backs of the workers and the deer flies from the Little Elkhart River area also were a challenge. “The Little Elkhart was the source of our irrigation and the water was pumped through above-ground irrigation pipes. “It was fun to stand up to rest one’s back and pick up a few stones and attempt to ‘sail’ them into a nearby pipe. The resounding sound of stone meeting pipe always irritated the management team. But since our name was Krider, we (as well as our young co-workers) ‘got away with it!’ “The nursery owned a couple pickup trucks, one of which was about a 1950 model,” said Rex Krider. “This is the one my Dad taught me how to drive at an early age. This truck was sometimes needed to load shrubs or small trees after they were dug. My brother Ross, Glenn (an Amish boy) and I would anticipate the truck needing to move up the row and we would race to be the one to drive it forward a small distance. “The nursery owned a gas pump and we knew where the key was kept so we could unlock the pump to fill up the tank. To everyone’s dismay, Ross and I, at a very young age, put a couple hands-full of shelled corn into the gas tank!!”
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