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He graduated in 1973, and worked for a time with Alberta Coleman at a President Kennedy-inspired AmeriCorps VISTA program in Lexington, which was basically a program with little money trying to help people who had even less.“ Alberta is one of my lifelong great inspirations and mentors,” Bush said.
From there he went directly to where a sociology degree and an interest in horticulture might logically lead: A hands-on landscape crew planting flowers, shrubs and trees for the iconic Hillenmeyer Nurseries in Lexington. His crew boss was Omer Barber, who gave the new college-graduate kid an exceedingly hard time for two months. Bush just shut up and did his job. Omer Barber was not going to defeat him.
The future turned brighter one day when Bush and Barber took a break, bought a six pack of beer, and went to visit one of Barber’ s buddies in the Port-A-Can business— a man lovingly called Roy“ Shit-Hauler” Martin. As Martin complained about the downside of his business, Barber likened that to working with Bush. Barber then leaned over and winked at his rookie. Their bond was made. Horticulture it was.
Success did not follow directly. Moving back to Louisville, Bush and a buddy, Richard Hopkins, began a business with the shameless name of Peat-Rose Landscaping, with the Cincinnati Reds baseball star getting no residuals.“ It lasted a couple of years,” Bush said.“ We learned a lot working for neurotic housewives and bankrupt building contractors.”
KEW INTERNSHIP Moving on, Bush, using some Louisville Anglophile influence, won acceptance for a year’ s worth of study at the sainted Kew Gardens in England.“ I was in way over my head,” said Bush.“ I was a sociology student.”
Hanging out with the best gardeners in the world was more proof that he had made the right decision. Upon his return, he opened his beloved Holbrook Farm and Nursery in Fletcher, North Carolina, with a mail order catalog more a wish list of what every gardener wants no matter the real needs. He also got to write the fun and flowery copy.
Yet exotic-nursery love and profit are rarely a match. Bush earned a small salary, but no real money. His marriage to Ali Mathews ended there, but their relationship gave him his daughter, Molly, and a grandpa-loving granddaughter, Story. Fifteen years after it opened, in a painful decision for him and his employees, he sold Holbrook and moved back to Louisville.
“ I’ ve gotten very useful information from GWA. I write catalog descriptions and a few trade magazine pieces for Jelitto Perennial Seeds. The best lesson I learned: Don’ t Write Anything the Reader Won’ t Read.”
“ We all shed some tears over that,” he said.“ I wondered if I was going to have to get the pickup truck and some hand tools again.”
ROOTED RELATIONSHIPS
Allen Bush was too well known in the wide gardening world, too knowledgeable, too accessible, too good a guy and travel companion to wander off in a pickup truck.
He settled in with his new, wife, Rose. The perfect garden mate, her Rose Bush name is a frequent source of amusement. Klaus Jelitto of Germany’ s Jelitto’ s Perennial Seeds quickly hired him to sell seeds. Bush began exploring the world, including two trips to China, seeking new plants to market. His companions would include Dan Hinkley of Monrovia, Georg Uebelhart of Jelitto, Kurt Bluemel of Bluemel Grasses and Hans Hansen of Walters Gardens. He also expanded his family with stepson, Cooper Francis, who lives in London.“ He and Molly both have green thumbs. They cut their teeth while growing up collecting Rudbeckia‘ Goldsturm’ seed for Jelitto from neighborhood gardens,” Bush said.
In 2011 he was given The Award of Merit by the Perennial Plant Association— its highest honor. His writing roots also flowered on The Human Flower Project, a worldwide blog of human relationships with the floral world, garden magazine articles, and more recently on Garden Rant, a blog dedicated to about anything a gardener has in mind or spirit.
Ten years ago he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease he has managed with optimism and medicine.“ It’ s a blessing, really. I kind of had to put my life in perspective,” Bush said.
He still travels to meet horticulture buddies, including GWA events.“ I’ ve gotten very useful information from GWA. I write catalog descriptions and a few trade magazine pieces for Jelitto Perennial Seeds. The best lesson I learned: Don’ t Write Anything the Reader Won’ t Read.”
He and Rose have created a garden paradise around their Louisville home. More recently they purchased an old hideaway farmhouse and 47 acres of land near rural Salvisa, Kentucky. They visit every week. They’ ve created a pollinator meadow there, planted hundreds of trees, walk the nearby woods and river’ s edge. Sociology can include nature, too.
Retired Louisville Courier-Journal columnist and author Bob Hill is owner of Hidden Hill Nursery & Sculpture Garden in Utica, Indiana. He enjoys rare and unusual plants, gathering with garden friends and the quiet solitude of a screened-in back porch. His academic honors include being the tallest kid in his class 12 years in a row.
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