Around 1880, Aart de Wit Sr. started his nursery in Boskoop, The Netherlands, which was known at that time, the nursery capital of the world. He began his nursery like many other area nurseries with rose multiflora under stock. This under stock was shipped to the Untied States and Canada by exporters who bought them from the startups for $5.00/thousand. Under stock had to be bundled, graded, trimmed, and made ready for packing. After shipment was made they had to wait until July 1 or Christmas, whichever came first, to get paid. Aart's wife owned and operated a very small grocery store at this time also which is the way that the family got groceries at wholesale and also sold groceries to the neighbors and friends.

While the nursery grew with new varieties of shrubs, the family also grew. Son Paul felt the need to continue in his fathers footsteps and continued growing a larger variety of shrub liners. Starting with hardwoods, then adding the growing of softwoods under double glass frames. As things progressed, they started to graft a large variety of Cherries, Apples, Crabs, Caragana and Plums.

World War II took its toll and plants were not needed as they had been. The only item that sold was boxwood because the Germans planted those on their airports runways for camouflage. Every time a plane went up it would destroy a few thousand of those boxwood. When it became known what the Germans were using those boxwoods for Paul stopped growing them.