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Mrs. Noonan discovered Ming trees in California one bright winter day when she was shopping. She was visiting her daughter, Betty, as ardent a hobbyist as Mrs. Noonan herself, who was working with plastic jewelry at the time. Mrs. Noonan was looking for ideas for Betty as she studied the shop windows.

The window that caught her attention had an especially good display of plastic jewelry, but there was something else that interested her even more. It was a miniature oriental-looking tree. Mrs. Noonan, with a special fondness for oriental art, forgot all about plastic jewelry.

On entering the shop she overheard another woman asking the proprietor how much it cost to make Ming trees. So that was what they were called, she thought as she pricked up her ears. After the woman left, Mrs. Noonan asked how the trees were made. She found that the proprietor had made the one on display. All the materials needed were a branch of manzanita wood, lichen bark and moss, a pottery dish, some Chinese figures, sand, wire, glue, paint and plaster of Paris. It sounded simple, Mrs. Noonan told herself, and if they could be made, she could make them just as well—or maybe even better.

SHE PROMPTLY began calling florist shops to find out where she could get supplies. Either no one knew or no one was telling. At that time, Ming trees had been on the market in California for about a year and a half. But they were being made only in limited numbers and sold only in selected outlets, at prices ranging from $15 to $200. The people in the know wanted the field to themselves.

Mrs. Noonan knew that Ming trees weren't on the market in the Twin Cities. Her Dresden craft and china painting hobbies kept her in touch with the art shops there. She knew she could sell Mings if she could get supplies to make them.

It was a forestry student living at Betty's home near the University of California campus who came to the rescue. He told Mrs. Noonan that manzanita and lichen bark and moss could be had for the taking in the national forest preserves, if the permission to gather it could be obtained. Never daunted, Mrs. Noonan soon had both the permission and a plentiful supply of wood and moss.

Next came visits to Chinatown to buy mandarin figurines. And then visits to art shops for bits of colored rock, sand and tiny bits of mirrored glass for lakes. Mrs. Noonan already had ideas for improving on the Mings she had seen. When the boxes began arriving back at the Noonan home in Minneapolis, Mrs. Noonan's family smiled resigned smiles and shrugged their collective shoulders. Mother had a new hobby.

MRS. NOONAN hadn't been home a day before things began to hum. She set up a workshop and went to work. The whole venture turned out to be just as simple as Mrs. Noonan had predicted. She made up a few sample trees, put them in the car and went looking for more pottery ware. She wasn't even trying to sell them that day. But when she asked the owner of one of Minneapolis' best known gift shops for dishes to put Ming branches in, the excited owner asked, "What do you know about them? Where can I get some? Do you make them?" Mrs. Noonan sold her samples on the spot, and at a nice profit.

A few days later Mrs. Noonan took some samples of miniature oriental gardens to a leading Minneapolis department store. She mentioned her Ming trees and got an order for several in different sizes, from a buyer who hadn't even seen a sample. He wasn't taking a very big chance, though. In fact, the delivered goods were satisfactory enough to warrant a second and larger order.

It was at this point that she adopted the name of "Florence Originals." Then she contacted other large department stores. And then orders began coming from interior decorators, window trimmers and florists. Almost before she knew it, her business was too large to handle alone. She tried hiring an assistant, but found that the workmanship was unsatisfactory. She preferred to cut her volume to maintain a high standard of craftsmanship.

MRS. NOONAN herself soon became so proficient she could make six or seven in an afternoon. And the more she makes the more ideas she gets. The first step is selecting a dish. Almost any size or shape can be used, except that the base must be wide enough that it won't tip easily. Mrs. Noonan thinks a wide shallow dish would be best for a beginner.

Next a branch of manzanita is chosen, the more gnarled the better. Manzanita is a very hard wood that won't rot. It grows high up on the mountainsides of California and Mexico, where it is bent and twisted by the high winds at the treeline. It is naturally brown or gray and Mrs. Noonan often enamels it in bright colors.

Lichen moss is then cleaned by holding it in the palm of the hand so it won't break and brushing it with a whisk broom or other stiff brush. Mrs. Noonan removes crumbly portions with a kitchen knife. The next job is one of visualization. Mrs. Noonan says there are an infinite number of ways of applying moss to any one branch. After deciding on the effect she wants, Mrs. Noonan attaches the moss with wire and glue. Then she covers the wire with lichen bark, which is glued on. The trunk of the tree may be either partially or completely covered with bark.

One method of securing the branch to the tree is to cut out a newspaper pattern of the inside of the dish. Then a mixture of plaster of Paris is molded to the pattern and the branch set in, propped up to the proper angle with bottles and boxes. Figurines of Chinese fishermen, coolies or mandarins can be placed in the plaster while it is still wet. Mrs. Noonan then sands the plaster and adds colored rocks to enhance the garden effect. Pieces of mirrored glass make lakes. After the plaster has set, the newspaper surface is glued to the dish.

Ming trees have now become sufficiently popularized to be marketed in variety stores and it was from the dime store product that Mrs. Noonan learned the newspaper method.

MRS. NOONAN dyes the plaster with water colors and the sand with diamond dye. The lichen moss, naturally gray, can be dyed, too. Mrs. Noonan learned to do it herself, thereby increasing her profits. Uncolored moss sells at retail for about $2 a pound less than colored moss.

"Always go to the best places first," is Mrs. Noonan's advice in marketing a new product. Soon after she made her first department store contact, the store's interior decoration consultant asked her to make a tree for the modernistic living room he had planned. Six months later Mrs. Noonan was doing only referred work for department stores, gift shops and interior decorators.

Among offers that Mrs. Noonan has turned down were two from pottery companies for orders of 300 and 500 each. She also had an opportunity to work with a man who does window trimming for florists throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. But she believes she is better off to make one tree at a high rate than several at a small profit.