[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 5667]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        A BLOOMIN' GOOD FAMILY AND THEIR BLOOMIN' GOOD BUSINESS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES A. BARCIA

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 24, 1999

  Mr. BARCIA. Mr. Speaker, all around Washington the crocuses and 
forsythia are starting to bloom, and for some it is a daily ritual to 
see whether or not the famed cherry blossoms have started to hail the 
true start of spring. The people of Saginaw, Michigan, may not have the 
same early blooms or the Tidal Basin ritual, but they have something 
better--McDonald's Nursery which is celebrating its 70th anniversary 
this week.
  Seventy years ago, Dr. Francis J. McDonald, a dentist with a vision 
for the beauty of nature, started McDonald's Nursery as a hobby. He 
bought five acres of land off Seidel Road with a 400-year old beech 
tree on it. He dug a well that to this day supplies water to the 
nursery, and with his children, Joe, Jim, Mary, Catherine and Tom, he 
planted trees. Today those trees provide a forty foot tall memorial to 
his legacy. With his wife Mary, he moved the family to what would 
become one of the most famous nurseries in this part of Michigan.
  Nursery products were sold out of the front yard at the beginning. 
During World War II, while sons Joe and Jim served in the military, he 
expanded the nursery buying more property with an eye towards the 
growing suburban area. When Joe returned home, a landscape division was 
started, and then in 1946 a garden store. The seasonal nursery business 
turned into a Christmas business in 1955, so that it is now a year-
round operation with its biggest months in December and May.
  Today, McDonald's Nursery has 112 employees and sales of nearly $4 
million. It has gone through thirteen expansions, and now covers 210 
acres in Thomas Township, with an 18-acre lake providing irrigation. 
The McDonald family has made its mark on the Saginaw business community 
as leaders to be admired and emulated.
  Starting from Francis McDonald's hobby, to Tom McDonald telling 
friends at a Chamber of Commerce dinner that they sell ``every bloomin' 
thing''--a phrase which became the nursery's hallmark, this is a 
business that we are privileged to have in the Saginaw community. Mr. 
Speaker, I urge you and all of our colleagues to join me in 
congratulating McDonald's Nursery on its 70th anniversary, and in 
wishing that their new slogan, ``McDonald's Nursery 70 Years and 
Growing'' holds as much promise as the first bloom of spring.

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