16, 1990
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:i
i: By J°nathan wright
:i Mention plants and nurseries,
i~and many folks in the Greenbrier
~ Valley think immediately of Carson
Looking east on U.S. 60, around 1935. At right is the Greenbrier Polo Field, near White Sulphur Springs,
i~Turner. The 65-year-old purveyor of
:lltrees, shrubs, and houseplants has
.;ibeen at it since childhood, making
~ihim one of the area's unofficial au-
i~thorities on gardens and landscap-
i;iing.
?d "Dealing with living things has
='~en my life. It's always been a
¢t~allenge competing with the ele-
ments--struggling through those
times when the weather's too hot,
~o cold, too wet, or too dry.
~rough working with plants in all
Ir,4tuat~ons I have enjoyed being able
use their beauty to create beauti-
~1 landscapes--to change some-
~ing 'blah' into a magnificent pic-
~re."
,,, Mr Turner works from his new
~rden shop and warehouse three
~iles north of White Sulphur Springs
on Route 92 at Mapledale. How-
ever, most area residents best re-
member his headquarters at the
northwest corner of' the former
Greenbrier Airport, on U. S. 60 be-
tween White Sulphur Springs and
Harts Run. The acreage was once
used as The Greenbrier polo fields•
Mr Turner ran his business there
from 1958 until1986. Plant-growing
acreage was at the southern end of
the airport property.
The history of the Turner family's
White Sulphur Springs Nursery be-
gan with the arrival of Frank S. La-
Bar in the Greenbrier Valley early in
the century. The LaBar family had
earlier established a nursery opera-
tion in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania,
and began traveling to the moun-
tains of North Carolina and West
Virginia for rhododendron, hem-
locks, azaleas, mountain laurel, and
other native plants. Eventua;ty they
established a plant in Mapledale
known as LaBar's Rhododendron
Nursery. Mr Turner's father Harry
managed the business from 1928
until his death in 1947.
In his boyhood Mr Turner learned
the trade by helping his father and
other staff members during the sum-
mer, doing the watering and other
odd jobs. His involvement with the
nursery was interrupted in 1943
when he went into the Air Force to
serve in the European Theater of
World War II. While stationed in
England and serving as radio opera-
tor with the Eighth Air Force, he was
shot down on his twelfth mission
over Germany and was held pris-
oner at Barth, on the Baltic Sea in
northern Germany, from December
1944 until May 1945.
He then returned to White
Sulphur Springs to help with the
nursery. When his father died in
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Carson Turner
new facilities was held in Septem-
ber, 1986. The nursery now grows
its plants on a 300-acre farm leased
from the Temp Gillespie family near
Blue Bend.
Mr Turner is a certified landscape
architect with the West Virginia
State Board of Landscape Archi-
tects. His nursery has landscaping
accounts as far away as Parkers-
burg, Clarksburg, Bristol, Charlot-
tesville, and Washington, D. C. and
has done work for The Greenbrier
Hotel, The Homestead, and the
Dunmore home of Senator Jay
Rockefeller. He has received an
award from the West Virginia Gar-
den Club "for outstanding achieve-
ment in community beautification."
He has twice been president of both
the Mid-Atlantic Nurserymen's Asso-
ciation and the West Virginia
Nurserymen's Association and is on
the Board of Governors of the
American Association of Nursery-
men.
Mr Turner is quick to tell why he
enjoys his work. "Dealing with the
outdoors and the fresh air, being
close to nature and God--it's great.
It's a prwilege being able to
joyment to people from living
making the world a better
which to live.
"Last month during a
party at our church, the
Men's group members each
brief synopsis of what they
living. I told them I feel
Adam. He pruned the
Eden---I prune everywhere!"
Mr Turner was born in
yon and has lived in the area
life. He is married to the
tha Valentine. The couple
daughter and five grandchili
Their only son Harry was
hunting accident in 1986.
The White Sulphur Springs
has been much like an
family to Mr Turner. "1
people here are tops to work
I'm walking down the street
into a restaurant, it's not lot
someone starts talking to me
something that's wrong with
or plant, asking my advice. It
me feel like a really needed
the community. I like that
one contact in what I do."
1947, Mr Turner took over as man-
ager, a position he served in until
1957, when he bought the branch
business from LaBar's and re-
named it White Sulphur Springs
Nursery. The next year he acquired
the familiar airport property from
Conner and Amos Nursery of Char-
leston, which had established a
branch nursery operation at that lo-
cation.
"Then, in 1959, we expanded our
operations to include a garden shop
and also added more acreage to our
lease," he explains. "We ended up
leasing about 70 acres all together
from the City of White Sulphur
Springs, which then owned the
property ."
A land trade in the mid-80's re-
sulted in the airport property, includ-
ing the nursery acreage, going to
The Greenbrier Hotel. As a result,
the Turner family began planning to
move their business back to its origi-
nal location at Mapledale. A display
area, garden shop, and warehouse
were built. The grand opening of the
p.
Harry Turner at LaBar's Rhododendron Nursery, 1937
was
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