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MEMBER PROFILE 



WEBBERS DUBLIN NURSERY 



"Something always comes along to help you diversify and survive. " 



// 1 his place is full of history," 

 Carl Webber says. "Before World 

 War 1, it was a dairy farm — one 

 of five farms on the west side of 

 Dublin Village belonging to the 

 Leighton family ...now they — and their 

 farms — are gone. After them, Gus 

 Grau, a farmer/contractor, owned the 

 place. ..it was known as "The Grau 

 Farm" then. ..and after he left, a fam- 

 ily — so poor that they literally 

 burned the doors to keep warm — 

 lived here. ..then it was abandoned." 

 Hedgehogs were living in the house 

 when Webber bought 100 acres and 

 what remained of the buildings in 

 1961. 



After graduating from UNH in 1955 

 ("things were still modest. I got my 

 degree — forestry — in buildings they 

 wouldn't store equipment in now — 

 and I got a good education"), Carl 

 worked at various jobs: at Colprit's 

 Nursery in Madbury ("Ernest Col- 

 prit — self-taught, a good taxonomist 

 and hybridizer — was a major influ- 

 ence on me"), then for Gene Healey 

 at Gem Evergreen ("Gene believed 

 in the best plant material possible 

 at twice the price you thought pos- 

 sible"); he taught vocational agricul- 

 ture in New Boston ("a small high 

 school — about as small as you can 

 get"). 



At first in Dublin, Carl grew veg- 

 etables and ran a farm stand; in 

 1967, he went into landscaping — "big 

 time, with a fleet of trucks and 

 crew." In 1969, he shifted emphasis, 

 building a 30x60 glass greenhouse 

 and 45x80 retail sales barn. There 

 was a divorce, a sojourn in Oregon... 

 then in the 1970s, he rebought the 

 place, expanded, putting up a sec- 

 ond house (30x50 rigid plastic) at 

 the end of the first with a potting 

 and storage area between them. And 

 in the early 80s, after twelve years of 

 a second marriage, he became a fa- 

 ther again... 



During this entire period, Carl was 



focusing more on religious values, 

 eventually converting to Christianity. 

 After 15 years of running Webber's 

 as a year-round nursery/garden cen- 

 ter, he and his wife decided to make 

 it seasonal in order to spend more 

 time with their family. 



THEN, IN 1987, CARL sold the farm 

 to a son (from his first marriage) be- 

 fore a second sojourn in Oregon's 

 Willamette Valley ("cherries blos- 

 soming in February, twelve-foot ca- 

 mellias by the door"), a place he 

 sees as one of the most beautiful 

 spots in America. "If I ever found the 

 right situation, I'd stay there" — but 

 he didn't and re- 

 turned to Dublin. 

 Carl and his family 

 live in a house on 

 the other side of 

 town and he rents 

 the greenhouses 

 and sales barn 

 from his son. 



One of the first 

 things he did when 

 he got back was 

 to build a cold 

 house on the foun- ^^^^^^^^^^_ 

 dations of the old 

 three-story barn — already partially 

 down when Carl first bought the 

 place. In the '60s, when he grew po- 

 tatoes, he put a flat roof over the 

 second floor and used it as a stor- 

 age. This time, he removed the sec- 

 ond floor completely and built a 

 peaked roof and covered it with 

 plastic. "One of the most difficult 

 jobs I've ever done was removing 

 that second floor — planks on beams — 

 chestnut and red oak, and six inches 

 of cement on top of that." 



quantities (the minimum of one vari- 

 ety being three six-pacs) — to smaller 

 operations. "A lot of people don't 

 want a sheet of plugs or a full tray 

 of just one kind." 



He offers 125 varieties, but em- 

 phasizes those that are hardy in 

 zones 4 and 5 — New Hampshire and 

 most of Massachusetts. "I like del- 

 phiniums — I grow maybe 100 stan- 

 dard trays of six types. We also try 

 to emphasize native — oxide daisy, 

 pearly everlasting, New England as- 

 ters ("I've always been interested in 

 asters"). I'd like to expand into vari- 

 eties that do well in zones 6 and 7, 

 extending the range down into 

 Rhode Island, Maryland — I already 



THREE YEARS AGO, the emphasis 

 changed again. He started to whole- 

 sale six-pacs of perennials — in small 



T He offers 125 varieties, but emphasizes those that 

 are hardy in zones 4 and 3 — New Hampshire and most 

 of Massachusetts. "I like delphiniums... 



T We also try to emphasize native — oxide daisy, pearly 

 everlasting, New England asters... 



T I'd like to expand into varieties that do well in 

 zones 6 and 7, extending the range down into Rhode 

 Island, Maryland — I already have a 

 customer in Maryland..." 



have a customer in Maryland..." 



Advertising has been minimal — an 

 ad in the perennial section of the 

 American Nurseryman classifieds. A 

 mailing list of 400 customers inter- 

 ested in smaller quantities within 

 100 miles of Dublin is no longer be- 

 ing used. 



He ships UPS, three trays mini- 

 mum: "It's a niche — a small niche, 

 but I don't know of anyone in the 

 Northeast doing it. ..and it continues 

 to grow — I've been doing it three 

 years and each year, it's doubled. Of 

 course, that still doesn't necessarily 

 make it very large — I drive the 

 school bus to make ends meet But I 

 feel this is a genuine opportunity" 



)une & |uly 1995 



