Archive for October, 2007

Rooted or unrooted leaves are easily shipped. First inquire from your state Department of Agriculture whether or not you must have inspection. Not many states require inspection for greenhouse-grown material provided it is for a domestic destination. A few states, where Japanese beetle is prevalent, do require it, and to ship into Canada it is necessary to have inspection in all states. Before shipping the leaves, write the name of the variety on a slip of paper; fasten it to the top of the leaf with a metal tab clip. Wrap the end of the petiole in a square inch of moist cotton secured by a covering of aluminum foil. Place the tagged and cotton-wrapped leaf in cellophane or a small plastic bag. Protected this way, leaves arrive in prime condition.

Some growers still employ the old-fashioned method of shipping leaves with the petiole ends wrapped in sphagnum moss and the whole leaf then wrapped in newspaper. If the shipment is not too long on the road this is good enough; but if it is a case of several days’ transit during hot weather the leaf becomes so dry it will fail to root.

You Can Start Small

Most of the large African violet specialists made their first profits from a small greenhouse, going on to build more and perhaps larger houses. Where they are now, you also can be one day in the not-too-distant future if you decide to make a full-time business out of a greenhouse African violet operation.

Most African violet hobbyists have every available inch of window space and under-fluorescent-light space crammed with plants. These are the collectors who prefer buying small started plants or leaf cuttings and growing them to specimen plants. A good way to get a scoop on the newest in African violets is to attend the national conventions. In order to be among those present you must be affiliated with the Society. Membership is $4.00 per year, payable to: Mrs. Arthur Radtke, Treasurer, P.O. Box 116, Madisonville Station, Cincinnati 27, Ohio.

At these conventions, which are held in a different city each year, you will find commercial dealers set up and ready to give you all kinds of information as well as sell you the newest varieties. Usually they have plants in 2- or 3-inch pots and most of them take orders for varieties in short supply. However, you can bring home from a convention some of the very newest kinds. Assuming that you cater to the collectors in your area, you will find it advantageous to insert an ad in your local paper informing your customers that you are off on a buying trip to obtain for them the most exciting new African violets.

Seeds are Salable

It is surprising how many seeds you can sell in your own neighborhood. The florists in your city may be interested in handling some of your home-grown seeds. They often have calls for Saintpaulias and prefer not to stock them in large quantities. If there is a seed house in or near your city, it is another potential outlet.

63. By all means, keep up with the new gloxinias, but don’t neglect the

many superior old-timers. The two-toned Blanche de Meru is still a

good seller. (Photograph by Author)

Special mixtures such as “best of the single pink varieties” or mixed doubles; mixed girl types; or mixed whites, are a natural for advertising in specialized house-plant publications since they are very popular with fanciers. Look through the garden magazines and newspaper garden sections for names of large seed houses; write these concerns and offer your seeds for sale. Small houses may like to buy them by the thousand; larger dealers take them in ounce or fraction-ounce quantities. In retailing the seeds, a fair price for mixed collections of seeds from various types of plants is $1.00 per 200 seeds. For specials such as seeds from double pinks or all whites you can easily get about $1.00 per 100.

Prices to seed houses will vary with the size of the company. If a house will take only a few hundred, you will have to sell them at about half the price you get retail. When you sell by the ounce, you will be able to realize $300.00 to $350.00 per ounce for average seed mixtures. For mixtures from the newest varieties including doubles, pinks, whites, and those of unusual foliage, you can command up to $750.00 per ounce.

Add a few granules of silica gel (extremely absorbent material which you can obtain at the druggist’s) to keep packets of “shelled” seeds dry.