John and Rea Saraphis are the owners of Cedarview Farm Nursery.  John started his career in the nursery business in 1973, as a summer employee at Hoogendoorn Nursery, a much respected propagator and grower of field-grown woody ornamentals.  He fell in love with the work and the lifestyle. (This started some people questioning his sanity!) 

Then he met Rea and fell in love with her too.  They married and lived happily ever after.....oops, sorry. 

To continue our story,  the economy in New England in the late 70's got a bit difficult so we moved to North Carolina in 1979 and John began contract growing for a wholesale/retail bedding plant producer while starting a landscape/grounds maintenance company to make ends meet.  After 20 very successful years providing these services to large corporate clients in RTP, NC, we sold the maintenance company and finished the outstanding landscape work with the intention of finally making John's "real" dream come true....running our own nursery propagating woody ornamentals.  (Thus raising the question of his sanity once again!)

Rea's six years working for other businesses as an executive secretary and bookkeeper dovetails nicely with John's more practical plant knowledge.  We have worked together for 28 years now!  Rea handles all the office work, helps with potting, and, she's sorry to say, weeding!  John does the propagation, growing, potting, weeding, spraying, construction, vehicle maintenance, etc. etc. etc.  (Are YOU beginning to question his sanity too?)

When we aren't working in the nursery, we have a menagerie of  9 dogs that we took in as strays, 2 cats, and 2 horses that need looking after.  We are also building our house, which has been a work in progress for almost twenty years.  In what little spare time is left,  John does woodworking and Rea does fiber arts that we sell online.  Whew!  This proves that not only were those people right to question John's sanity, now Rea's sanity is compromised too!

On a serious note, we have been very blessed in our lives.  Working in the horticultural field has allowed us to work with, and learn from, many wonderful and helpful people.  We'd like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who helped us over the years, but especially Case, Victor and Dick Hoogendoorn for introducing us to this wonderful lifestyle.