CARL FRANZ HEYNE

CARL FRANZ HEYNE
(1876 - 1948) - 2ND GENERATION

As a boy, he attended Prince Alfred College.
Then he qualified from Roseworthy Agricultural College.

1899 - James Potter was taken in as a partner in the Rundle St. shop. The shop's name was changed to ‘Heyne, Potter & Co.'.

1902 - Married Wilhelmine Caroline Dorethea (Minnie) Lehman.

1904 - Partnership ceased, but the business continued for a while under the same name, opposite York Hotel in Rundle St. It was later sold, and a stand opened at the market.

1911 - He leased a 10 acre property at Summertown on Greenhill Rd. As an extension of the nursery. His growing family moved there to live. As he used to work in town, and later at the Norwood Nursery, he stayed the week with his mother at Bond St., Norwood, and drove the horse and cart back up to the hills to rejoin his family for the weekend.
He packeted and sold seeds in country areas just prior to World War 1.
He also sold seeds and cut flowers from the Central Market on Fridays and Saturdays until about 1912.
White flowers were best sellers, as back then it was customary to put only white flowers on graves.
After this, the business was run from 47 William St., Norwood. He concentrated on selling bulbs and packing seeds for wholesale to shops.

World War 1 - As the name Heyne is German of origin, he suffered much animosity. Once a month, a Lutheran Minister used to visit for a service for the Heynes and another nearby family of German origin. The locals claimed they were conducting German spy meetings and so harassed them that they discontinued the services. - One day a local policeman visited Carl and apologetically explained that he had to examine the large Blue Gum out the front of the house as the locals claimed it hid a wireless for sending And receiving German spy messages!
Carl's children were also harassed and taunted at school.
The business was badly effected during the war, largely through having a German name.
He tried operating a motor bus service from Uraidla to Adelaide. He bought a second hand Russel truck. Any soldier in uniform was carried free. As many Uraidla children used to pass the family home on their way to school, Carl would give the first 20 a free ride.
At the same time, he worked as a gardener for many of the wealthy Adelaide families.

1915 - 1928 - Business was conducted from Norwood and at the property in Summertown. He was a heavy pipe smoker and a couple of puffs were enough to quieten the bees. If he was travelling along the road and saw a swarm of bees ahead, he would take off his shirt, tie the top with the sleeves, and put them inside.
He also kept pigs, and the boys would trap rabbits for the evening meal, and sometimes to sell to neighbours.
Goats were also kept. The kids (goats) were for the dinner table (even though many at the time would not eat such meat), and the older goats were harnessed to the boys' cart that they used to collect firewood both for themselves and to sell to neighbours.
Carl's wife, Minnie, used to go fruit picking to earn money for the Christmas presents for the children.

1928 - Selected and developed site at 41 East Parade, Beulah Park, now known as 287 The Parade - the site of the present day nursery. At first he sold mainly seeds and seedlings.

1931- The lease had run out on the Summertown property, and the family moved back down to the plains to live in Kensington.

1936 - The Beulah Park nursery was now operating as ‘Carl F. Heyne & Son', Franz Waldemar Heyne ( known as wally ) having joined his father in the business.
Carl started selling a comprehensive range of trees, shrubs and climbers, as well as seeds.
The business was again effected by anti-German sentiment just before and during World War 2, despite brothers and other relatives being volunteers in the Allied Forces.

1947 - The nursery became known as ‘Kensington Nurseries'. Carl Franz Heyne died in 1948.