Moto Asakawa, Our Horticultural Mentor

This is the first text blog since my father-in-law passed away. Although he died the way good people should - in his sleep, peacefully without pain and in the comfort of his own home - I face his absence with a heavy heart. He founded the first retail garden center in San Diego that offered multiple departments: a retail nursery, florist, gift shop, koi, tropical fish and landscape design. Nursery owners from all over the U.S. visited Presidio for marketing ideas and inspiration. For my husband Bruce and I, he left us with the love of the plant world as well as a moral compass that is straight and true. In his final years he was confined to a wheel chair, but we were able to plant 18 different varieties of tomato plants each spring in containers squeezed between his roses and 5 newly installed fruit trees along his driveway. He would spend hours each day, wheeling back and forth to enjoy every nuance of growth and fruit development. And last spring, we planted 18 grafted Mighty 'Matos for him. He was thrilled with his gargantuan plants and abundant fruits and loved sharing them with his neighbors and friends. I know he is in heaven with his beloved Florence, standing tall amidst his tomato plants.