Verdugo Views: Carney’s Nursery was familiar site, booming business at Honolulu and Cloud avenues
Now, there are seven houses on the northwest corner of Honolulu and Cloud avenues in the Crescenta Valley. But for many years, the corner was filled with flowers, trees and plants — and all were for sale.
The nursery was established by a Minnesota couple, Jack and Sara Craig, who discovered the valley while on a vacation. In 1932, they acquired nearly an acre of land, complete with a house and a small nursery, from Will L. Brown.
The Craigs became very involved in the community and, between them, joined Rotary Club, the Masonic Lodge, Eastern Star and the Women’s Club. They ran the nursery for 18 years.
Sarah Craig passed away in 1951 and her husband later sold the business to the manager, Earl Carney, who had placed a sales ad in the Ledger on May 24, 1951, listing sale items. One-gallon privet plants, designed for hedges, were 40 cents each, while a 5-foot Forbs Cypress went for $1.75.
Carney, with his wife, Mae, purchased the property in 1952. Their granddaughter, Karen Ferrato, seeking information about the nursery, contacted Mike Lawler of the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley.
He did some internet sleuthing and found the above information and worked with Ferrato and her siblings to fill in the gaps in the Carney family’s documentation.
Pam Lawler, who edits the society’s publication, included the story in the February 2020 Ledger.
According to Ferrato’s account, her grandfather never finished eighth grade. Instead, he began working on the family farm in Kansas, then went into the dairy industry before purchasing the nursery.
“Earl Carney was self-taught and read to learn everything he accomplished. I know he learned propagation, so that he could grow his own plants. He and my grandmother loved everything about growing, planting and general gardening,” Ferrato said.
She related great memories of the nursery, the smell, the coke machine (a bottle of coke was 10 cents in those days) and the hairy ferns she thought were scary.
“Roses and iris were their love. Granddad started carving out large lava stones and planting them with juniper and such. We still have some,” she was quoted in the newsletter.
As the nursery grew, Carney purchased a truck to deliver fertilizer customized to his customer’s needs. The owners continued to expand the nursery, offering landscaping services and sprinkler systems and “everything in the nursery line,” Ferrato said.
When I read the story, I contacted Mike Lawler who put me in email touch with Ferrato.
“My grandparents were very talented and ambitious people,” she said in her reply email. “I know my grandparents were self-taught in pretty much everything they did. The nursery was no exception.”
At first, they lived on Honolulu Avenue, eventually moving to a house on Hermosa Avenue, with a rose garden.
“My grandmother played the organ, knitted and crocheted, upholstered furniture, made candles, jewelry, ceramics and much more,” Ferrato said.
Mae Carney was also a great cook and an excellent seamstress. Ferrato said her mother, Marilyn, graduated from Glendale High in 1951 and became engaged on graduation day to Donald E. Watkinson. When the couple married the following year, the bride wore a gown made by her mother.
Ferrato grew up in Canoga Park, but spent her summers in La Crescenta. Her grandmother “made all my school clothes every year. We’d go into Montrose to pick out patterns and fabrics,” she wrote.
The nursery was sold to Robert and Alice Shively in 1970. The Carneys bought property in Oregon and “filled it full of plants, rhododendrons, trees and, of course, a vegetable garden,” Ferrato wrote.
“My granddad took up oil painting and sold a few. My grandmother also took up oil painting but not as much as granddad. The paintings are still in the family. They both passed away in Oregon,” she added.
Readers Write:
A June 18, 2015, Verdugo Views column about artist Bartholomew Mako brought a recent email from Donna O’Connor. She is seeking information about one of his paintings, done in 1965. She purchased it from the estate of Laura Mae Mako and was told it was of Helen Hayes’ granddaughter, Mary. “I have confirmed it is not her. Any information would be greatly appreciated,” she wrote.
