History of the Blew Family and Centerton Nursery, Inc.

The Blew family of Bridgeton, NJ came from a line of ship builders, which is traced back to Revolutionary War period. My great, great, great, great grandfather, Lehman Blew (1810-1890) built a number of homes and oystering boats still in use in the Mauricetown, NJ area. My great, great uncle, William Hall, designed the first assembly-line boat building factory in the world. So I suppose it was for posterity that my grandfather, together with my older brother, Donald, built a boat, the "Lehman Blew", when Donald was barely twelve years old.

How the Blews got to North America, as best we can tell, is two Hessian brothers arrived in 1778, hired as mercenaries by the British. Once here, one brother defected. After the war both brothers stayed in the colonies. Although both raised families that carried the name to present day the split remained and we know little of one another. The spelling of our name, Blew, is probably an aberration occurring at the time of emigration. As best as we can tell, it most likely came from 'Blau', which means the color blue in German.

My grandmother's side (Marlene Crowe Woodruff Blew), were Saxons originating from Fordwich, a tiny town near Canterbury in the Kent Kingdom of southeast Britain. That would make them of Germanic descent and they were likely involved in the shipping and farming industries. They arrived here from England in 1639, first settling on Long Island, where they purchased a 1,700 acre tract of land from Natives located around the now trendy and very expensive Hamptons. (If anyone should know what happened to the transfer of that property, please inform them of a serious ancestral oversight, as I was inadvertently left out of the will.)

In the 1960s my grandfather traveled throughout Latin America managing production and processing facilities for a multi-national food corporation. He dragged his family along and they spent a good deal of time in Ecuador, a small country located on the northwest coast of South America. Ecuador (translation "equator") is bordered on the north by Colombia and the south by Peru. It was the epicenter of Incan culture from the early to the mid millennium. It is rich in history and natural resources. Half of all animal and plant species in the world live in Ecuador. It is diverse, including the Amazon basin in the east, the highest mountains in the western hemisphere (the Andes, to 23,000') and an agriculturally productive plantation zone straddling its Pacific coast. Ecuador is the worlds largest exporter of bananas as well as shrimp. The Galapagos Islands, 500 miles seaward, belong to Ecuador. My Dad and Aunt Jill spent most of their high school years in Ecuador, and Dad got a degree from the American College of Quito.

My grandparents, Ray, Jr. and Marlene, bought Centerton Nursery in 1975. It had several small greenhouses on 9 acres of leased land and no employees. Evergreen Azaleas were the first crops grown. Our first employee, Rosie Belle Clark, stayed with us for sixteen years, at which time she returned to her Georgia birthplace to care for an aging mother. We think of her often.

In 1980, it was suggested that retailers might sell color items in seasons other than spring. (At the time, this discovery was shocking). We made a natural progression into flowering shrubs, then eventually, at the prodding of a customer, pioneered large-pot herbaceous perennials, another project for which we were coined, "Absolute idiots! Who in their right mind would ever buy them?"

On average, a small parcel of contiguous land was purchased every 3 years to a prevailing total of 205 acres. Just over half this acreage is in use by Centerton. Another 30% is in use by BlewLine Nursery, a sister company that sells bareroot perennial liners.

Greenhouse area is currently at just over 2.2M sq. ft. Most greenhouses measure 31' by 600', making them the largest overwintering structures in the world. Current production is around one and one-half million finished plants per year. We created and own a dozen or so registered trademarks and patents, with more coming every year.

There are 80 employees working 9 to 12 months of the year. Employee backgrounds are diverse from many nations and at least four languages are spoken on a daily basis: English, Spanish, Mandarin-Chinese and foul.

Centerton is a place of firsts, each stirring local, regional and sometimes national commentary. Among them:

*Designed and built the world's first mobile potting machine. We're also responsible for the second, third and fourth. ("It'll never work.")

*Designed and built the first electronic pruning apparatus. Growers worldwide come to see this machine in action. We're currently developing an improved machine, not that there was much wrong with the first. It has worked well for us for 14 years, and we're still using it today. ("It'll hurt the plants.")

*Designed and built the first gothic style engineered greenhouse. We since re-designed and evolved it into our largest-in-the-world overwintering structures. ("Most ridiculous thing I ever saw.") By the way, we're now working on another redesign that will be more efficient, use less steel to manufacture, and will hold a heavy snow load (making for less winter matainence).

*Created the first sales-line of large-pot perennials. This became the BlewLabel® Perennial line. ("You people are absolute idiots.")

*Created the first system for testing and marketing of easy-care Roses. From this came Hasslefree® Roses. ("What good is that?")

*Created the first system for regional analysis of Daylily performance. This evolved into Trophytaker® Daylilies. ("No one will ever pay for a better Daylily.")

*Created the first broad line of hardy, everblooming Daylilies. This became the Happy-Ever-Appster® Daylily line. ("They've lost it.")

Centerton is now owned by Marlene and Ray (first generation), Denny (second generation), and my brother Donald and me (third). Donald started working here at the age of three. He has since graduated from Del Val College in Doylestown, Pa., and is working full-time on the nursery. He heads up the production side of the business, managing (pretty much) all the outside operations of the nursery (with truly incorporates about half a million things).

I also started working here at quite a young age. There are some photos around here somewhere of me trying to load a Forsythia on a truck that is at least three times my height (at the time). Since then, I graduated from Penn State University in 2003 and started work two days after my last final exam (those two days being Saturday and Sunday). I have personally fallen into the slot of sales/marketing management, which intails things from designing and building this website, writing our catalog and calender/planner, and many other odd-jobs that occur inside the office (which truly incorporates about a million things). Over many years, I have followed the work of our long-time associate, Dr. Darrel Apps, working on in plant genetics and hybridization. I have now begun Centerton's own breeding program, which keeps me well occupied throughout certain parts of the year.

Amy, my younger sister, graduated Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA in 2006. While in college, she interned for a PR firm, where she got to meet people like director Steven Spielberg and Band of Brothers actor Ron Livingston. So when she came home she decided to help us out in the PR department, doing some work on our CharityPlants program. Well, needless to say, she did a fantastic job. In spring of 2007, she took over the immensely important task of sales and shipping manager, and, well, needless to say, she's doing a fantastic job. She has helped bring our company into the 21st centurty, writing weekly email galleries of available product and building our own Facebook page.

Stewart, my Aunt Jill's son, has an interest in film and the arts, and in 2009 he graduated from the Savannah College of Art & Design. He now lives in Los Angeles and is working his way to being an acredited Director of Cinematography. He is currently doing freelance work, mostly on TV commercials. So far he's been most starstruck by Mike Rowe (host of Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs), whom he met on the set of a Ford commercial.

There are more fun stories and trivia about the nursery that I'll pass along in the future. For now, I'm tired of writing and you're probably tired of reading. So thanks to you, our customers, our suppliers, our friends. We wish you a great year!

Bob Blew (3-29-2010)