He’s the Man With the Answers on Plants : Gardens: For 13 years, hopeful horticulturists inspired by Bill Hager’s patch of paradise at the arboretum have been seeking him out for tips.

For many visitors to the Los Angeles State and County Arboretum in Arcadia, the grass is always greener in the “Garden for All Seasons,” a half-acre plot of land that lies behind a stalwart oak tree close to the arboretum’s entrance.

Hopeful horticulturists flock to the garden to admire flowers, from amaranths to zinnias, and vegetables that would spruce up any salad. And they seek advice from the man with one of the greenest thumbs in the San Gabriel Valley: Bill Hager.

For the past 13 years, Hager has been the mind and body behind the garden. At 82, this white-haired, bespectacled great-grandfather volunteers four mornings a week at the arboretum, giving freely of his knowledge, expertise and labor.

And the garden flourishes throughout the year--so much so that budding gardeners often come to Hager armed with books and catalogues, firing a barrage of questions on how to bolster their own efforts.

“He’s an authority--he knows everything,” said Jack Hart of Arcadia, one of Hager’s dozen assistants.

The visitors ask him what, when, where and how to plant. But mostly, said Hager as he sat in the cool shade of the oak tree, gazing at the San Gabriel Mountains, they ask for advice on watering.

“They think when it’s dry you have to water (the plants) every day, but you don’t,” the longtime Temple City resident said. “There’s no set answer; you have to use your own judgment.”

His own judgment is tempered by more than half a century’s experience in the nursery business--a history as colorful as his flowers, stemming back to his teen-age years in his native Germany.

At that time he lived with his parents and two sisters in the eastern German city of Erfurt, known as the “flower city of Germany” for its large number of nurseries. When he was 16, his physician father encouraged him to work without pay for a short time at a nursery in a neighboring city.

“My father said, ‘Try it out, just for the fun of it,’ ” Hager recalled.

The six-month stint was enough to persuade the young man to sign on at a nursery in Erfurt as an apprentice, a position he held for two years.

But his new-found vocation was interrupted by his voyage to the United States in 1927, when he was 19. By that time, Adolf Hitler had written “Mein Kampf” and was beginning to form the Nazi Party. Hager’s recently widowed father felt it wise to send his only son away from Germany “while there was a chance,” Hager said.

As he adjusted to life in Cincinnati and then in Southern California, he worked odd jobs, first as caretaker at a large estate and then in a launderette.

About a year later, he landed a job at a small nursery in Los Angeles. He worked at a succession of nurseries in Los Angeles County before he and his wife of 55 years, Mary, bought their own business in 1948. Located in Temple City, Hager’s Nursery met the gardening needs of area residents for more than 20 years.

Hager retired at the end of 1977. But he has continued pursuing his first love by volunteering at the arboretum and planning the “Garden for All Seasons.”

Unfortunately, he said, this year has not been as fruitful as years past.

Pointing at a small vegetable patch, he shook his head and said, “We didn’t even get one good tomato (this summer)”--a result of intense summer heat, smog and malathion spraying, which killed pollinating bees, as well as pesky Medflies, he said.

The flowers appear to have fared better. Magenta, white and deep orange impatiens--small, delicate-looking flowers--decorate one shaded bed. Pink and yellow zinnias peek out daintily from another patch. Pale hollyhocks show off in a corner.

Hager has already begun planting winter vegetables, such as cauliflower, cabbage and carrots, and spring flowers, such as snapdragons, pansies and delphiniums.

But he took a break from pushing his wheelbarrow last Tuesday to reflect on why he has cultivated his vocation for so many years.

“I’ve always liked to work outside more than inside,” he said. “When you work in an office, you leave to go home and you lock the door. When you come back, it’s all there; it’s all the same.

“When you work outdoors, when you come back, everything’s different--rain, shine or snow. You never know what Mother Nature has in store.”