Known as a pre-eminent grower of shade and ornamental trees and shrubs, Flemer has devoted his career to producing improved cultivars for the industry through his nursery, Princeton Nurseries, where he was born in 1922 and has spent most of his life. Flemer holds patents on more than 45 trees, shrubs and vines including Shademaster locust, Greenspire linden, October Glory red maple, Green Mountain sugar maple and Green Vase zelkova.

"He is truly the king of plantsmen," said Princeton president Ivan Olinsky who has known Flemer for 30 years. "He has the sharpest eye I've ever seen."

Flemer graduated from Yale with B.A. and master's degrees. He said he chose Yale because of its reputation in botany and forestry, "and I wanted to get away from home." His studies were interrupted by World War II, and he served in the Army's 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion in Europe whose mission was to distract the main German army forces from the Allies' Normandy invasion site. He was president for 20 years of the nursery business his grandfather William Flemer founded in 1868 as F&F Nurseries. F&F today is operated by descendants of his uncle, Carl Flemer.

Nearly as soon as he arrived after the war, Flemer began using his knowledge of plants to improve existing species, and he began raising a family. He and his wife Lib have three children, all in the nursery business: Louise, who works in Princeton's sales department; Heidi, in the distribution center; and Bill IV, who owns a nursery nearby.

Olinsky said Flemer is a tireless worker and, though semi-retired, continues to spend at least one day a week at the nursery inspecting the fields, assisting in planning for the nursery and doing some nursery work on his own. Last spring he was granted patents on Clethra alnifolia September Beauty and Maakia amurensis Starburst, which will be propagated for release to the industry next year.

For many years Flemer has shared his expertise and opinions with the industry. He has lectured widely on nursery management, plant propagation, woody plant breeding and shade tree selection and use. He has written four popular books, "Shade and Ornamental Trees in Color" (1965), "Nature's Guide to Successful Gardening and Landscaping" (1965, 1989), "Ornamental Shrubs in Hardy and Temperate Climates" (co-authored in 1982) and "Rewarding Careers in the Nursery Industry" (1990).

In a November 1996 interview with NMPRO ("Growing Concerns," Page 54), Flemer called for more tree breeding efforts nationwide to produce plants suitable for harsh urban settings.

"We could do with more trees that grow well in tough inner-city conditions, where trees have trouble surviving. Not in suburbia, but inner cities. Like on Fifth Avenue in New York City, for example," he said.

Flemer's contributions have been widely recognized. He has received the Thomas Roland Medal from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society (1969), the International Plant Propagators' Society Award of Merit (1973), the Garden Club of America Medal of Honor (1983), the Catherine H. Sweeney Award from the American Horticultural Society (1992), and many others.

In a recent presentation, New Jersey Agriculture Secretary Arthur R. Brown Jr. cited his "endless contributions as a nurseryman and as a leader whose many accomplishments have enriched the horticultural world and greatly enhanced our landscaped environment."

Flemer grew up in the nursery industry and said he never considered any other line of work, except possibly teaching botany, which he did as a graduate student at Yale. "They disbanded the botany department, so I came back home," he said.

At Princeton, he devoted his activities toward improving the nursery, tree genetics and plant breeding, and becoming involved in the industry. He remains active as a member of the advisory council for the U.S. National Arboretum and the White House Grounds Committee.

In introducing him at his induction as a member of the New Jersey Nursery & Landscape Association Hall of Fame, his friend Ed Overdevest recognized both Flemer and the nursery. "A saying that I heard a couple of years ago seems very appropriate this evening, 'the tall tree catches the breeze.' In a positive yet realistic sense, we recognize Princeton Nurseries as the tallest tree in the forest of the New Jersey nursery industry."

Peter Costich, a lifelong friend and fellow nurseryman, said Flemer "is of an elitist bent. And he should be, he's an elite person. He's honest without being stuffy about it, and he's ethical without being a prude. He's all of the things that make a quietly full, productive person. He's a neat kind of guy."

The plant patents he received are superior in many ways, Costich said. "Their growth rate is uniform, their hardiness is identified, their fall color, their flowering, their root systems -- all of the things that go into making a great tree."

(Photos by Karen Chamberlin)