A few weeks ago I received a call from Ellen Heath. Milton & Ellen are members of our Philosophical Society of Lake County. Our philo group try and meet once a month and most of the time we are pretty successful in meeting at the Riviera Golf & Country Club in Kelseyville. We have a total group of about 60 or so. Moving right along..
As I mentioned Ellen Heath called and invited Ev and I to join them as well as some others from our group for the ribbon cutting ceremony of their newest HUGE greenhouse! **Novavine Nursery is located in Santa Rosa, near Oakmont.
Milton & Ellen had arranged for a bus limo to take the group down for the event!
We all arrived on time to get into the bus limo and before you know it and we were off!
It was a GRAND day with the “Heath family”. How special it was to be apart of such an exciting time in this families lives! And the best part is we got to be there, we were invited to share in this very special occasion! There were about 22 of us total. While on the bus we did indulge in some wonderful wines.. 
Milton & Ellen were kind enough to supply the wine glasses.
When we arrived at the Nursery everyone was cheerful and excited to see all of us! Of course we weren’t the only people invited to this GRAND event. There were also representatives from many of the wineries in the area there as well.
There were appetizers galore! Wonderful Pizza, wine tasting, water, touring of the nursery, by the owner himself, Milton Heath!
After we finished touring it was time for us all to get back on the bus and now go for dinner!!
We were all having a wonderful time on the bus! Joking and laughing all the way! Next stop the Union Hotel Restaurant in Santa Rosa (not the Union Hotel in Occidental, like I thought). Union Hotel Restaurant located on Mission and I had no idea! What a great experience. The staff was surely ready for us when we arrived. they had a nice room over looking the forest of trees for us. Lovely place. We all continued to chit chat enough each other company. We enjoyed cocktails, and wonderfully delicious meal!! We will go back there again.. ***** 5 stars..
There is such a wonderful story behind all of what we did today. I will try and tell it at the end.
A retired couple starts a new business in the golden years and almost looses everything they worked for their whole lives! With a very happy ending!!
Thank you Milton & Ellen for sharing your life and your passion with us!
**Novavine Nursery, supplies wineries with “root stock” or new vines/clones for growing the grapes. Probably the best explanation of what they are expert in would be to visit their website>>http://www.novavine.com/..
Story: This is the short version.
Milton & Ellen bought a Exotic plants nursery business in 1996. Soon they new that wasn’t really what they wanted to do. So they made some serious changes. They started growing “starters” vines for vineyards. They were doing ok, but they were having problems with the plants dying.. Over 50% were dying off.. Not really knowing the real reasons, they just kept trying different processes.. However it wasn’t working and this went on until there was pretty much nothing left. Soon they had to start selling off property, their home, etc..everything short of going bankrupt.. In the meantime they lived in a motorhome for awhile by their daughter and did some traveling. Their son Jay was interested in the business and it seemed he had some great ideas and an understanding of the business, so he then took charge upon the request of his parents, Milton & Ellen. I am sure Milton & Ellen were feeling pretty destitute at this time in their life. Imagine working your whole life and making a nice living and then it is all gone!! and you are 70ish by now.
Jay hired a “voodoo” man (that’s what I call him, but I am sure there is another name). He had the whole bunch of them walking around banging pans, holding smoking sage brush along with numerous other attic walking through the green houses scaring away evil spirits!! As funny as it sounds I do believe this man (a scientist of some kind) wanted to test the water to see how really interested this “Heath” family was in getting results. So between the “voodoo” scientist and Jay’s good business sense, they were on the move back into bring back an healthy nursery. It took some years, but it is back and better than ever! Their clones now have a survival rate of 99.9%. The sales are prenominal of over 3 million plants sales in a year! The nursery is expanding into Olive tress as well.
Of course this is the short story, but if you have a great imagination you can only just imagine how happy Milton & Ellen are today! CONGRATS to you both! We hope you enjoy your retirement to the fullest! Happy Ending..
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