even in small towns, the business 
was converted by the present opera- 
tors to be predominantly wholesale. 
One of the rules established by 
the founder, which is still followed, 
appeared in the company’s catalog 
of 1880. Joseph Vestal wrote: 
“Our stock is carefully selected, 
none but the best varieties are 
grown; baving always made it a 
rule to grow nothing for the sake of 
variety that bad not special individual 
merit.” 
The Sago Palm (Cycas revoluta) shown 
here is more than 100 years old. It is 
still thriving In one of our greenhouses, 
When Aaron Vestal, father of the founder 
of VESTAL’S, was in the plant business 
in Indiana, this palm was very popular as 
a decorative plant among the fashionable 
people of that day. All these palms were 
imported from the Orient. Joseph Vestal 
acquired this plant in 1868 when It was 
well over fifteen years old, and he brought 
it to Little Rock when he came here 
seventy-five years ago. 
Azaleas are always good sellers, always good profit-makers 
75 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE COULD PRODUCE 
ONLY 
a Tt 
A plant over 100 years old growing in one 
of our greenhouses 
a ein eS * 
