Archive for March, 2009

Clarence Johnston of Osseo, Minnesota, starts tubers in his home in February, moving them in May to an unheated pit greenhouse where they are ready for market by August. One department store buys his entire output. Since he grows his plants without heat, he can figure on more than usual profits.

Maude Cogswell of Hamburg, New York, who sells mainly by mail, believes that you can make even the smallest greenhouse a paying proposition. She grows plants in a mixture of Michigan peat, Bacto Sand, and chicken grits, and gives weekly feedings of a complete soluble fertilizer. One huge bench is filled with sphagnum moss, and gloxinias there get liquid fertilizing twice a week. She has found the horticultural formulas containing Gibrel (the growth-boosting gibberellic acid) such as Mira-Cell and others, most helpful in rooting plants and starting expensive and hard-to-germinate seeds. Bamboo porch screens, costing $4.00 each, shade the attached, lean-to greenhouse and reduce temperature by some 10 degrees. In winter, heavy transparent plastic on the windows inside the house cuts heating costs. Cost of upkeep on the steel and brick structure amounts to little more than an annual coat of paint.

In Bethel, Vermont, a retired banker and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Sargent, decided to enroll in a florist course. While studying, they set up a 3-bench prefab house, with a shed attached for a gift shop. Now they are full-fledged florists, growing “a little of everything” in 10 greenhouse sections with one devoted to gloxinias which are sold in all stages, dormant tubers, seedlings, and flowering gift plants. This last is most profitable, since the Sargents live on the road to the hospital. For their big days, Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, and Thanksgiving, they buy extra plants in quantity from a wholesale florist. Their workroom is in the basement of their home, where they have installed a large walk-in refrigerator.

Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Day of Springfield, Illinois, purchased, for $200.00, a model 14- by 16-foot greenhouse erected by a lumber company, and moved it to their city lot and filled it with gloxinias and African violets. To show off his plants, Mr. Day took some to his office where the office people snapped them up and also asked to visit his greenhouse, which meant more sales. The Days soon expect to make their project self-supporting and then, at retirement, expand their business into a full-time money-maker.

Retaining walls and borders

If you are installing a retaining wall or new border for flowerbeds or gardens, then you will need brick, stone, or rock. This will depend on the look that you are creating and how much you want to spend on it. You will be able to find these items at any home and garden center or landscape supply center.

Maintaining your masterpiece

In order to keep your landscape looking fresh and clean, you will need to have a few items. A lawn mower is defiantly a necessity. A fresh cut lawn is the key to having an attractive landscape. If you have shrubs or hedges, you will need to have a set of hedge trimmers or clippers.

Watering cans and hoses

When you have flowers and plants, you will need to keep them watered. If you have a larger area that needs to be watered, then you are going to need a hose. If you are just watering flowers around the house, then a watering can will be sufficient.

How to Count Small Seeds

You may wonder “How can I easily count 50 or 100 or 500 or more of such tiny seeds?” Here’s a handy if unscientific way to do it. Place a pinch of seeds on a sheet of white paper. Spread the seeds apart with the point of a lead pencil. You will be surprised to find that you really can distinguish separate seeds -or if you can’t, use a magnifying glass. Count out 100, adding a few for good measure. Push them together with a pencil, taking care not to pile them on top of each other. Draw a circle around the lot. Package your hundred and use the circle to guide you in measuring out the next hundred. If you sell thousands of seeds you might have a tiny ladle made to hold exactly 100 seeds. Of course, the circle and the ladle will be of different sizes for different seeds.

Before Shipping

Before shipping any plants or parts of plants, inquire from your state department of agriculture whether or not you must have the material inspected. In the United States, few states require inspection on greenhouse-grown material which is shipped within the states. A few states where Japanese beetle is prevalent do require it. Inspection is required in all states if the shipment is going into Canada and most foreign countries.

When you are shipping to a foreign country, contact the state Department of Agriculture of your own state (see Appendix) for instructions as to the preparation and labeling of material for shipping. Every country has its own regulations and they vary considerably.

When you want to import material from a foreign country, it will be necessary to obtain permission from: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Plant Quarantine Branch, 209 River St., Ho-boken, New Jersey. You will have to state the type of plants you are going to import, who is shipping them, and their port of entry. You will be assigned an import number and given slips to send to the person exporting the plants to you. This may sound complicated but it takes only a few days to receive your permit. Don’t get yourself in hot water by importing without authorization.