MONTE RUSSELL 
MR. AND MRS. H. M. RUSSELL 
A PERSONAL NOTE 
TO MY FRIENDS AND CUSTOMERS 
OR many years | have issued the largest 
all-color catalog exclusively on Daylilies in 
all America and perhaps spent more money 
publicizing Daylilies through magazine adver- 
tisements than anyone else. But there was no 
catalog in 1952 and 1953—only circulars and 
very little advertising—and I feel in fairness to 
you, as well as ourselves, with all the talk we’ve 
done about being the largest growers of Daylilies 
in America (and we certainly are—growing over 
thirty acres) it is only fair to tell you WHY. 
To begin with, 1952 and part of 1953 were the 
hardest years I ever saw in my life. Frankly, it 
began at the end of 1951—no, not financially, for 
even with those circulars, because of the name we 
had already made, we sold more Daylilies in 
those two years combined than we ever did in 
all the years of our existence, thanks to you, our 
valued customers. You know in my past catalogs 
I have always given histories, photographs, etc., 
of my family from the time some of them were 
babies. Now many of them are grown and have 
babies of their own, and literally thousands of 
you have asked for more of this, I appreciate 
this but let’s skip that this season and use this 
space to explain why no catalogs have been issued 
in the past two years. 
First, in September, 1951, while Jake, my 
oldest son, was moving his family to his new 
home, one of the worst “could have been ca- 
lamities’” that ever happened to a person hap- 
pened to us. While all the trucks were there 
moving Jake and his family, and people standing 
around, little Monte, one of Jake’s children who 
we “knew” was being cared for by his nurse, 
A, 
when he was only eighteen months old decided 
he would do a little browsing around on his own. 
Actually in sight of no one, he crawled under a 
three-quarter-ton truck and simply lay down, 
and when one of the men moved the truck it 
actually passed completely over little Monte’s 
body, across his chest. Naturally, he was “‘out”’ 
—everybody figured he was gone. 
Immediately everything stopped and he was 
carried to the little town of Conroe, 20 miles 
north of Spring, him being unconscious all the 
way. Due to the quick thinking of the doctor 
there at the hospital, he was immediately put 
under an oxygen mask in an ambulance with a 
nurse and sent to Houston, a distance of 45 miles 
back south. On the way in, thanks to Providence, 
Monte started blinking his eyes. He was put in 
the care of what we think is one of the finest 
baby specialists in America, the doctor who 
invented the famous airlock (a type of baby 
incubator now used in hospitals all over the 
world, an invention that has saved many thou- 
sands of lives) and with his almost constant 
care, within a few days Monte seemed normal 
again, the doctor explaining that the soft dirt 
caused by so much rain at that time, and a 
child at that age does not have his bones de- 
veloped, they being almost flexible, helped to 
lessen what could have been the end of Monte, 
and within two weeks he left the hospital. This 
doctor says if he didn’t know it happened he 
would never believe it himself. Now, after two 
years, Monte has become as big a “‘toughie’’ as 
any of my other grandchildren—and then we 
say miracles don’t happen? This family should 
RUSSELL GARDENS, SPRING, TEXAS 
