2 Leaders of Region’s Nursery Industry Die

Martin Usrey and Clifton Comstock, longtime leaders in California’s nursery industry who introduced scores of new plants to gardening enthusiasts around the world over the past half-century, have died.

Both men worked for Monrovia Nursery, the country’s third-largest wholesale grower of garden plants. Usrey was president and later chairman of the board until his retirement in 1988, while Comstock was executive vice president of sales and marketing until 1994.

Usrey, who was 87, died July 22 at Vencor Hospital in Ontario. Comstock, his longtime friend and associate, died July 12 in Palm Desert after a short illness. He was 72.

Monrovia Nursery was founded in 1926 by Harry Rosedale. In the late 1950s, it moved from Monrovia to 600 acres in the Azusa foothills, and it now has operations in Visalia and in Oregon.

Known internationally as an innovator, it offers more than 1,300 varieties of flowers, trees, shrubs and grasses, 265 of which were developed at Monrovia.

Usrey, a Redondo Beach native, got his start at the nursery with a summer job after high school in 1931. He was hired as a water boy, which meant he “got a hose and watered” plants, said his son Bruce, who is now president of Monrovia Nursery.

Although he had no formal training in horticulture, the former water boy became company president in 1974, serving until 1983, when he became chairman of the board. He eventually held 18 patents for plants such as Mint Julep and Gold Coast Juniper. He was the first in the nursery industry to promote those plants as well as others such as Harbor Dwarf Heavenly Bamboo and Alice du Pont Mandevilla. All are commonly seen in the California landscape today.

Along with Comstock, Usrey helped spread a method of growing that proved a boon to the postwar nursery industry.

A Northern California nursery had begun growing its plants in old fruit cans instead of planting them in the ground and uprooting them for sale in burlap balls. Rosedale and Usrey tried the method and found that the plants thrived and could be easily moved, making long-distance shipping more practical.

Usrey and chief salesman Comstock traveled widely to introduce the concept of container-grown plants to gardening centers around the country. Now it is the preferred method used in nurseries along the West Coast and has begun to catch on in the Northeast and other regions.

“Martin and Cliff helped grow the market for container-grown plants,” said Harold Young, editor and publisher of Pacific Coast Nurseryman magazine. “Now it’s a fairly common practice. But back in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, we were doing it in California, but no one else in the country was.”

Usrey also established the first research department in a nursery, staffing it with horticulturists who studied better ways to propagate and grow plants. By growing its plants more scientifically, Monrovia developed a reputation for quality plants, according to Jack Wick, consultant to the California Assn. of Nurserymen. Usrey served as president of the American Assn. of Nurserymen in 1965 and was elected to its hall of fame in 1981.

Comstock, an Iowa native, came to California in his youth, graduating from Los Angeles High School. After graduating from UC Santa Barbara in 1951, he moved to Monrovia and got a job as a salesman at Monrovia Nursery.

He headed sales for 40 years, spreading his knowledge of plants through many avenues. He advised the Los Angeles Unified School District on plant selection and landscaping and served on the Los Angeles Garden Council for Sunset magazine for 25 years.

In 1980, he joined forces with Francis Ching, then director of the Los Angeles County Arboretum, to found the Los Angeles Garden Show. Los Angeles, despite its sunny climate, vast array of flora and suburban tracts teeming with amateur gardeners, had been without a garden show for 20 years. Comstock said the city “deserved a garden show,” Young said.

The first show was a sellout, Ching recalled, and drew such large crowds and traffic that Arcadia police had to close the entrances to the arboretum, where the event was held.

Ching and Comstock produced the show for nine years until 1989. It was suspended for several years, then returned to the arboretum as an annual event in 1994. Over the years, Ching said, the show has introduced hundreds of new plants to the masses, as well as provided a showcase for nurseries and landscapers.

Comstock, who retired to Palm Desert in 1994, is survived by his wife, Dorothy; eight children and 11 grandchildren. A public memorial service is scheduled for 5 p.m. Aug. 19 in the rose pavilion of Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge.

Usrey is survived by his wife, Opal; son Bruce; daughter Joanne Hummer; and five grandchildren. Donations may be sent to the Martin W. Usrey Research Grant, Horticultural Research Institute, 1250 “I” St. NW, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20005, or to the Monrovia Nursery/Martin W. Usrey Scholarship, c/o California Assn. of Nurserymen, 33947 Lennane Drive, Suite 150, Sacramento, CA 95834.