SAUGUS — Laura Eisener, president of the Saugus Historical Society, focused on the topic of spring in their latest meeting, highlighting the flowers in town, including greenhouses.
First, she mentioned places outside of the flower businesses, where one could have found beautiful flowers.
“One was the railroad station at Pleasant Hills, and that was either Denver Street or Adams Avenue… The station master, George H. Johnson, tended the lovely gardens while he was waiting for the trains to come,” Eisener said.
She continued that people from all over town would come to see the gardens, and she believes people from out of town even came to look at them.
“He was knowledgeable about fancy pruning and was able to get some of the most interesting flower varieties. So, flowers, trees, shrubs, all kinds of things around the station that you didn’t normally see anywhere else,” she said.
She spoke about the elm trees that used to be around Main Street until Dutch elm disease occurred.
“The most famous of these was planted much earlier,” she said, showing a photo of the elm planted by Parson Joseph Roby. “He planted this elm tree… about three or four houses from the Summer Street intersection with Main Street. That tree stood until 1951, and it was featured in a book called ‘Historic Trees of Massachusetts,’ by James Simmons, which was written in 1910.”
Up next, Eisener spoke about Sim’s Carnation greenhouses.
“Sim’s Carnation was definitely Saugus’s most well-known horticultural business. It was started by an immigrant from Scotland named William Sim. He developed carnations,” she said.
At the meeting, the granddaughter of Sim was there, and she provided photos for everyone to look at.
“At one time, there were 14 greenhouses at Sim’s. Their business was mostly commercial, and they developed new carnation varieties. The first one was bright red. I think it was the first really red carnation, and it had white speckles,” Eisener said. “He developed some others. Some all whites, some all red, and several other combinations of red and white, became known all around the world from other greenhouses selling them retail.”
Another greenhouse that started in Saugus was the Albert D. Nunan Florist, which was established in 1917. A descendant now owns the greenhouse located in Georgetown.
“They moved in 1957 to a former farm in Georgetown, so it had wonderful agricultural land. It already had one greenhouse on it, so they added some more, and it had a house for the family,” she said.
Eisener said she never would have known Nunan’s started in Saugus had she not gone on a trip to visit the current store with the Saugus Garden Club, where she looked up and saw a sign stating such.
