This garden is many things, but be sure of one: It's all Harry.
"Some people who come here might think I'm kooky. Some people might think I'm artistic. But everything for me is nature," says Hasson, 73, a longtime florist whose garden is sure to be a highlight of the inaugural Ventnor City Garden Tour on Saturday.
Hasson, a Margate lifeguard and ocean distance-swimmer in his youth, has been a player in the Shore's floral business for half a century, 33 years of that for the casinos in Atlantic City. Two years ago, he says, he learned in an e-mail from new owners that his casino contract for flowers and landscaping, 85 percent of his business, would be terminated in 30 days.
"I don't feel sorry for myself," he says, "but they beat me up pretty good."
His floral enterprise in Linwood is closed and up for sale. He still does small landscaping jobs, but the long tradition of Hassons in the flower business is pretty much over.
Six orphaned brothers - Hasson's father was the baby - emigrated to Atlantic City from Turkey around the turn of the 20th century, eventually opening five flower shops there. Hasson's father, who started one in 1919, encouraged him to go to college and make a different life.
Hasson, an economics major who minored in art, graduated in 1959 from Rutgers University and was barely launched in a career when his father died. The dutiful son came home to take over the business. He knew little, but worked hard and over time, did well - until the e-mail.
There have been other sorrows - a divorce, the deaths of two of his three children. Now, to survive, in every sense of that word, Hasson is rethinking his life.
With fewer demands, there's good news, too: He now spends up to 20 hours a week carving, a hobby he last enjoyed four decades ago. "It's really good therapy for me," he says.
