Archive for December, 2007

When it comes to growing for profit, gloxinias (sinningias) have two real advantages: They are among the showiest of flowering pot plants and they also make excellent “specializing” material. The heaviest flowering of these gesneriads occurs during the warm months, but staggered plantings will produce some flowers the year round, so plants are almost always salable. Colors range from purest white through blues and purples to the brightest red. There are selfs, bicolors, margined varieties, and some with speckles and dots. There are older varieties with narrow tubular throats and modern hybrids with large wide faces and nodding “slippers” large and small.

Is the Gloxinia Business for You?

Many amateur and professional growers have found gloxinias profitable. Some specialize in seeds, some in tubers. Others carry the plants through the season, selling thousands at Easter and on Mother’s Day. Huge plants, grown for these special occasions, retail for about $10.00 apiece.

Gloxinias also attract collectors. If you sell by mail, you can interest them through a little two- or three-dollar ad in a specialized publication, such as The Gloxinian or The African Violet Magazine. Keep up with things through the American Gloxinia Society, and its magazine. Membership is $2.50 per year. Address: Edith McDonald, Secretary, 310 East 71st St., New York 21, New York.

From My Greenhouse

When I first began selling, I vended small potted gloxinias, in bud only, in 3-inch pots to local plant counters. Today I sell

64. Other than African violets and gloxinias, the episcias are probably the “most wanted” of the gesneriad clan. They are the leading cash register-ringers in many a successful under-glass business. Profits from sales of Episcia dianthiflora, for example, have paid off the initial cost of my greenhouse. (Photograph by Author)

65. Streptocarpus, the Cape primrose, is handsome in leaf and flower.

Interesting variations in floral shades and markings assure a wide appeal.

(Courtesy, Antonelli Bros.)

only species tubers and those from my crosses between species and large-flowered hybrids, most of them directly to a commercial seed house which also orders gloxinia seed. The species seem most popular, followed closely by the hybrid slippers.

You will find that standard varieties are always in demand. The older ones were hybridized in Europe and today commercial dealers here still obtain many of these varieties from foreign sources. Since European growers have low labor costs, they are able to sell below most American dealers.

You pay the wholesaler $7.50 to $35.00 per hundred tubers, depending on the tuber size. You can retail small ones for about 30 cents each; the giants will bring 75 cents to $1.25 each, depending on the market.

African Violets and Orchids

George Wissell of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has a 10- by 10-foot affair, built for approximately $350.00. He grows only African violets and orchids. The orchids hang from the roof to obtain more light and to help shade the African violets. Two double-shelved benches are at the sides of the house. Fluorescent lights under the first bench adequately light the plants growing on the lower bench, which is about 6 inches above the floor.

In such small quarters, Mr. Wissell does an excellent job of hybridizing and growing. All the plants, except those kept for hybridizing, are sold to local stores or hobbyists. This constant profit promotes his hybridization in a big way.

Meeting Home-Town Needs

In Houston, Texas, Grace Grissom sells African violets from her 15- by 48-foot attached-to-the-dwelling greenhouse. A suspended gas heater keeps the temperature up during the winter months, while an evaporative cooler holds it down during the scorching summer. She attends conventions to procure the newest violets, which she propagates. She is now adding a sales room for potting accessories, materials for flower arranging, and other gardening equipment.

Sales Through Mail

A friend in New York rears her African violets in a prefabricated 10- by 12-foot lean-to and sells through the mail, eliminating the “bother” of having people running to her greenhouse. Much of her trade comes through membership in round-robins (correspondence groups of various plant societies). She advertises her specialties in such publications as The African Violet Magazine, The Gloxinian and The Begonian, with an ad once or twice a year in one of the larger gardening journals. Her hobby pays off well in both cash and fun.

African Violets from a Southern Greenhouse

In humid Louisiana, a hobbyist sells African violets from a 24- by 30-foot free-standing greenhouse erected by local builders. By keeping a heavy shading on the glass and several layers of cheesecloth inside the house, he is able to keep the house cool enough in summer. He raises thousands of violets and, while he sells some locally, his main business is wholesale.

If you want to make African violets your specialty, it will pay you to join The African Violet Society of America, Inc., P. O. Box 1326, Knoxville, Tennessee. This Society issues a well-illustrated magazine, and there are a number of other advantages to membership.