New Scholarship Fund Honors Longtime Horticulturist Harwell

Ben Harwell's philosophy on life is simple. "Don't look at your situation as a problem," he says. "Look at your situation as an opportunity." That's been one of his guiding principles throughout his 84 years of life and is, in fact, how he turned a chronic health problem into a highly successful career as a horticulturist and landscape designer.

A Montgomery, Ala., native whose artistic talents were apparent early in his life, Harwell enrolled in Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University, in the late 1930s, intent on earning a degree in art. Not long after, however, asthma-related health problems that had plagued Harwell since childhood began to flare up, and his physician suggested that he consider a more active vocation than art and strongly advised him, in the meantime, to get more physical activity.

On that advice, Harwell landed a job watering plants at an Auburn-area nursery, making 15 cents an hour. He quickly discovered he enjoyed nursery work and soon branched out and began making Sergeant Barberry cuttings, at a penny per cutting. Though technically still an art major, he started taking horticulture classes along with his art courses and soon realized he could combine his two main interests by studying landscape architecture.

The onset of World War II brought changes to the Loveliest Village and to Harwell's plans. Harwell, whose health problems had kept him out of the military, was one of only five students enrolled in Auburn's landscape architecture program during the war, and because there were so few students, several courses that Harwell needed to graduate were repeatedly cancelled. Eventually, frustration took its toll and Harwell decided to forgo the degree and enter the workforce

He moved to Birmingham and worked for a while as a landscape designer for a nursery there. While in Birmingham, Ben met and married his wife of over 50 years, Jimmie Stitt.

Several years later, the Harwells moved back to Harwell's hometown of Montgomery, and in 1955, the couple opened Green Thumb Nursery on the Upper Wetumpka Road. Starting a business from scratch was a slow go for a while, but with Ben's horticultural and landscaping background and Jimmie's accounting expertise, the small nursery survived and eventually began to thrive.

Harwell instilled in his two sons, James and Charles, a love of plants and a strong work ethic as they worked alongside him in the nursery. Both sons earned degrees in ornamental horticulture and landscape design from Auburn University and then returned to Montgomery to join the family's Green Thumb Nursery.

Under their leadership, Green Thumb has continued to flourish and now includes two retail locations, a growing operation and an extensive landscaping division.

Though the elder Harwell has now retired from the nursery business, son James says he still drops by the retail locations frequently, "to check on things." Harwell is always eager to share his knowledge of and love for plants with others and continues to look for ways to serve others in the industry. Through the years, he has served as governor of the American Association of Nurserymen and as president of both the Montgomery Nurserymen's Association and the Alabama Nursery and Landscape Association. He also is a recipient of that latter organization's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Most recently, as a move to help young people who intend to enter the profession Harwell found so rewarding, a scholarship fund has been established in his honor through the Alabama Nursery and Landscape Association. Two $1,000 Ben Harwell Scholarships were given this year to horticulture seniors Rebecca Bond and Justin Koen.

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