Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 17, 1993 TAG: 9301170121
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORT ROYAL LENGTH: Medium
SUPPLYING `APPLE BLOSSOMS' A PLUM ASSIGNMENT FOR FLORIST
Those apple blossoms soon to decorate the White House for President-elect Clinton's inaugural aren't really the Arkansas state flower they're purported to be.It's too early to force apple blossoms into bloom. But with just the right treatment, a well-conditioned green thumb can get the apple blossom's near lookalike, the plum blossom, to turn pale pink in January.
David Jenkins Sr., a Caroline County wholesale florist, has that green thumb.
That's why the White House has ordered plum branches from his farm near Port Royal for the inaugural festivities.
Budding branches from Jenkins' tulip poplar trees will decorate the Kennedy Center in honor of Vice President-elect Al Gore, as well. The tulip poplar is Tennessee's state tree.
Jenkins' family has done business with the White House since Warren Harding was president.
In those days, the White House had its own greenhouses. But the florists there didn't know how to grow delphinium, Mrs. Harding's favorite flower. When the first lady heard that Maryland farmers named Jenkins grew the blue flower, she sent her growers to find out how.
Jenkins, 69, hadn't even been born then. His father and grandfather, who founded the family business in 1908, ran the farm. But it wasn't too long before Jenkins became an official employee.
"I was 10 years old when I first went on the payroll. I worked nine hours a day, six days a week and made 50 cents a day," Jenkins said. "By Saturday night, when I had three dollars in my pocket, I thought I was the richest man alive. And I'd have told you that, too."
Aside from a brief hiatus to serve in World War II and to get his horticulture degree from the University of Maryland, Jenkins has worked in the family business ever since.
In 1986, encroaching development in Maryland caused Jenkins to move the family business south to Caroline County. Jenkins, his wife and their son and daughter-in-law now own the farm.
They have converted 30 acres of former soybean fields into colorful pastures of flowering trees, perennials and annuals. Hundreds more plants are kept inside 10 greenhouses. In the huge "head house," walk-in refrigerators hold freshly cut flowers before they are trucked to Fredericksburg and points north. Most of Jenkins' business is with retail florists in Washington.