Man Who Cultivated Garden Center Concept Dies

Charles S. Crum, owner of Flowerdale Nurseries in Santa Ana and who helped transform California’s nursery industry from plants in coffee cans to today’s tidy garden center, has died. He was 84.

Crum, who was one of the few who paid his staff sales commissions and offered what even competitors called the best service among Orange County nurseries, died Dec. 22 after a lengthy hospitalization in Newport Beach, his family said. He requested that no service be held.

As past president and a decades-long member of the California Assn. of Nurserymen, Crum was instrumental in professionalizing the retail side of the business, for which he was nationally recognized among his peers.

In 1990, Crum--who wore a dark-green suit and tie to the nursery each day--was awarded the state trade group’s highest honor for his contributions to the industry. They include helping to form a program through which nursery owners and staff can become certified professionals.

“During Charlie’s time in the industry,” said Harold Young, editor of Pacific Coast Nurseryman magazine, “it went from a very unsophisticated industry, almost a farming image, where you’d have guys making change out of cigar boxes and plants were put in Hills Bros. coffee cans, into more of a truly sophisticated industry of retailers.”

Nursery owners from other states and countries frequently toured Crum’s Flowerdale Nurseries to observe his operation, from presentation of plants to his signature customer service, said Ron Vanderhoff, Crum’s former nursery manager.

Vanderhoff, now nursery manager of Roger’s Gardens in Newport Beach, the largest garden center in the country, said Crum paid his staff well and had the same employee help a customer throughout a nursery visit, from plant selection to loading the car in the parking lot.

“Flowerdale,” Vanderhoff said, “is the Nordstrom of the nursery industry in service.”

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What today is a $33-billion industry dominated by chains was a family-run business when Crum joined it. He bought his nursery, with wife Colleen, in 1972 on Tustin Avenue north of 17th Street. He opened a Costa Mesa branch in 1978.

The great-grandson of the flower grower for the German kaiser, Crum was born in North Dakota on Nov. 8, 1916, and grew up selling bouquets from the flower stands of his grandfather and uncles. Crum studied plant physiology at North Dakota State University but had to leave school because of the Depression. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, flying 38 European missions as a lead bombardier. He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, one of the nation’s highest combat medals.

After returning from the war, Crum worked at Rosedale’s Nurseries in Monrovia before venturing out solo with Flowerdale. His daughter, Georgia Vixe of Santa Ana, has taken over the business.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Crum is survived by a son and a granddaughter. The family asks that donations be made to the Flowerdale Scholarship Fund at the California Assn. of Nurserymen.