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Hybridizing, or plant breeding, offers many profit-making opportunities to the new as well as the experienced grower. It is in this field that your greenhouse is most essential-an indispensable time- and money-saver for you. Many of the varieties you originate will appeal to the “dessert market”-collectors and other gardeners who, unmindful of cost, want to have the latest thing. You will find some of these customers in your vicinity, but you may have to rely mainly on mail-order sales.

Commercial men who stock new and different plants may provide an outlet for your hybrids. Still another possibility is supplying smaller dealers with stock on terms whereby you receive a percentage of sales.

My Greenhouse-Grown Hybrids

I have developed a number of unusual hybrids-gloxinias, African violets, and amaryllis-but my most salable plants are my gloxineras. These are intergeneric crosses between rech-steinerias and sinningias. But I don’t spend nearly as much time on hybridizing as I’d like to-and that apparently is the case with most other greenhouse growers. Thus the field is wide open-the market for new pot plants has never been better, and competition here is all but nil. Why not set your hands to hybridizing some of your plants? They can help you get a better profit from your greenhouse if you give them a chance.

Many Plants Can Be Tried

One greenhouse grower in Missouri makes a profit from creating new varieties of ferns. Others in the same area developing and selling hybridized African violets and gloxinias. An Oregon grower has produced a strain of hardy azaleas-all started from seeds in the greenhouse. Amateur as well as professional greenhouse gardeners have developed new chrysanthemums-some as seedlings, others as mutants.

I can’t possibly give the whole story of the “how-to, when-to, what-to-do” of plant hybridizing. But the following ideas should at least give you a start.

Flower arranging and designing will help you make more profit from your greenhouse. Some of the flowers and foliage you use can be grown in your greenhouse or gardenother material will have to be purchasedpreferably from a wholesaler, if one is accessible to you. New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Decoration Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are the big holidays when cut flowers, arrangements, accessories, greens, and corsages are in greatest demand. But there is also year-round trade for birthdays, parties, showers, weddings, and funerals. And there are other special days, and weeksFather’s Day, Halloween, Fourth of July, St. Patrick’s Day, Secretarial Week, and Sweetest Day (proclaimed sometime in mid-October). Your local Chamber of Commerce can fill you in on these dates.

If you have never made floral arrangements or corsages, it will pay you to take a course, locally or by mail. You might also do apprentice work at a local florist shop, and read books on this profit-making aspect of greenhouse operation. Your classified telephone directory will provide names of schools near you; correspondence schools advertise in national magazines.

Flower Design as a Career

A gardener in Washington who took a mail-order course in floral design for only 6 weeks, soon earned enough from sales of corsages, funeral sprays, and flower arrangements to pay for her course and show a profit. Another in Georgia earns as she learns by specializing in arrangements for silver and golden wedding anniversaries and church weddings.

You might enjoy flower designing so much that you will want to go to work for a local florist and specialize in this phase of commercial floriculture. Florist shops offer wonderful opportunities for those who enjoy working with flowers and dealing with the public.

Flowers on Commission

If your greenhouse is not large enough to grow the flowers you want for retail, and your town has no florist shop, you might try taking orders-that is, being the local agent for a florist shop in a nearby city. Many small towns have no florist, but still there is a demand for designs and arrangements for special occasions. An out-of-town shop will pay you a commission of 15 to 25 per cent of the selling price for handling their flowers.

Cutting and Storing Flowers

Some authorities recommend cutting flowers in the early morning when stems and flower heads contain a large amount of moisture. Others recommend later-afternoon cutting. It probably makes little difference if no foliage is attached to the stem, as with gladiolus, narcissus, orchids, and many other plants. Where there is a lot of foliage, I like morning. Cut-flower customers prefer-and pay more for-long-stemmed roses, snapdragons, stock, and chrysanthemums. With corsage flowers- orchids, camellias, and gardenias-stem length is unimportant.

Deep plunging of flowers into water immediately after they are cut reduces water loss from leaves, helps retain turgidity, and adds to life. Cut flowers should be kept out of bright sun and draughts, and humidity should be increased. Petalife and other water-soluble preservatives make cut flowers last longer. You can stock these products either to sell or to give away with each flower order.

Flowers placed in sealed packages and kept in temperatures of 40 to 50 degrees will keep weeks longer than the same flowers placed in water and stored at the same temperatures. Scrub all containers and keep them clean, for better appearance as well as to remove the bacteria which shorten the life of flowers.

An Illinois enthusiast grows orchids to make use of the blank and too often useless wall of his attached-to-the-home greenhouse. He fastens l1/2-inch galvanized mesh to the wall with expansion bolts. He pierces pieces of oak bark and inserts galvanized wire hangers to suit each piece of bark. These bits of wire are bent and hooked. Their small size permits him to hang them as close to or as far from the wall as is necessary. Pots can also be hung like this with little difficulty.

The Rehs of Illinois, whose Fiberglas greenhouse is described on page 40, grow many plants, but their profit-maker is orchids at wholesale. They sell cut flowers and plants to local florists in the St. Louis area, and they do all the work themselves caring for approximately 4,000 plants. Since these plants are for resale only, they avoid having to collect the state sales tax and make a monthly report on it. In the local market their home-grown orchids bring 50 cents more per blossom than shipped-in orchids.

With cisterns of rain water available, and plenty of light, they find they can feed their orchids more heavily and more often than most growers. Water temperature approximates a warm rain by an adjustment between the hot-water tank and the direct line from the cistern. An old, water-softener tank was converted, by replacing chemicals with fine sand, into a filter to remove algae and fungus spores. This keeps pots and osmunda fiber clean and fresh longer, and the roots of the plants are not smothered by an accumulation of moss and dirt. The Rehs grow their plastic-house orchids wetter than do glasshouse gardeners. Their phalaenopsis and cymbidiums, especially, seemed to be in a much damper growing medium than I have observed elsewhere. In their Fiberglas house, air circulation is increased according to seasonal temperatures.

L. J. Milan of Tulsa, Oklahoma, built an 8- by 20-foot orchid house for only $200.00, including benches. Walls and ceilings were made from spent, 48-inch, fluorescent light tubes. It has weathered 4 years of Oklahoma hailstorms and winter temperatures occasionally as low as 10 degrees. He makes a good profit on flowers alone and sells no plants. In winter he heats economically with two 15,000 BTU orchid-house-unit heaters, and holds the temperature at 60 degrees.

Orchid success stones are legion. You can always be sure of sales if you grow these plants.

Haemanthus, better known as the African blood lily, is fast becoming a popular pot plant. This is an excellent item for collectors, growers of rare house plants, or the gardener who wants one or two “conversation” plants. One firm now lists seven species, and you can get an effective start toward stocking your greenhouse by purchasing a bulb or two of each. I have procured seeds from Africa and grown many of my haemanthus from them. Most bulbs send out many offsets, and these can be removed when they are about a year old. Since the older bulbs retail for

79. A profit-packed bench of orchid plants, ready to please all kinds of customers among the ever-expanding legions of orchid hobbyists. And there’s usually a good market for the cut blooms too. Note the super-drainage holes in the special orchid pots. (Photograph by Genereux)

$1.50 to $10.00, these offsets, especially those of the rarer sorts, are easy to sell. Almost all species are good seed setters. The usual method of pollinating is to rub your hand over the flowers every day while plants are in bloom. This insures pollen distribution of the small flowers.

While the majority of haemanthus grow best in bright light, the white-flowered one, H. albiflos, flowers only in a shaded location.

Haemanthus Katharinea produces a hundred or more tomato-red flowers and supple green leaves; H. multiflora, with its beautifully proportioned flower head, is recommended for the beginner. The neck of the bulb is speckled red, and the flower scape, 12 to 14 inches high, firmly supports the ball of red flowers. Other varieties, as H. magniftcus, and H. coccineus also are red or reddish orange, while H. albiflos and its variations have tassels of white flowers.

Haemanthus requires little rest. Some of the red-flowered varieties shed their foliage about 4 to 6 weeks before sending up bloom scapes; H. albiflos remains evergreen, shedding only some of the older leaves. I keep my haemanthus in the greenhouse the year round, never setting them in dark quarters for a dormant period.

The fancy-leaved geraniums are prized by collectors and find favor, too, with the gardener who wants a “different” pot or bedding plant. Although the leaf colors are varied, they do not clash when planted together. Grow them in strong sunshine to bring out their full beauty. One profit-gardener makes a specialty of these. She grows masses of them outside on a sunny slope and sells cuttings directly from the bed.

Popular among the fancy types are Happy Thought, Marshall MacMahon, Bronze Beauty, Skies of Italy, and Mrs. Pollock. Beckwith Pride, Hills of Snow, and Attraction are among the silver- and green-leaved; Gold Leaf, Verona, Cloth of Gold, and tiny Dwarf Gold Leaf have gold leaves.

Unusual and Fine-Flowering Types

These fascinating varieties have sales appeal for the collector as well as those who want unusual house or garden plants. In this group are the Bird’s Egg pelargoniums with the lower petals of the flower touched and splashed with darker color. There are few of these listed by dealers. If you can secure plants to propagate, you will be assured of a stock item with exceptional sales value.

Less rare but popular is the notched-petal group listed as Jeanne, Carnation, or Sweet William. These flowers have “pinked” petals-like a carnation. The Rosebud geraniums have very double flowers like tiny partially opened rosebuds. Favorite varieties are Apple Blossom, Magenta, and Scarlet Rosebud, whose flowers open wider than the others. Then there is the Poinsettia group with narrow, uneven petals of varying size. Red Poinsettia has short petals of lavender pink. The pure white one, Noel, may be listed under Cactus-flowered.

Another group is called Phlox because its eyed-florets resemble the garden phlox. Both Phlox and its variety, New Phlox, are popular.

Martha Washington Pelargoniums

Growers on the West Coast sell the pansy-flowered Martha Washingtons (Pelargonium domesticum) to home gardeners. Almost every yard flaunts these gorgeous beauties. In other sections, they are sold only as spring gift plants or as Decoration Day specials. Because they are not so easily grown as their relatives, the zonals, you may find it wise to buy rooted cuttings and grow them on in a cool greenhouse. You can get assorted labeled varieties in red, pink, purple, and white for about $10.00 per hundred. Plant these directly into 3- or 4-inch pots. Water freely and keep at a temperature around 55 degrees.

Good sellers are Empress of Russia, Jungle Night, Carmine Queen, Misty Rose, Stardust, San Diego, Mrs. Mary Bard, Ballerina, Azalea, Mary Elizabeth, and Senorita.

Ivy-Leaved Geraniums

You will sell ivy or trailing geraniums to gardeners who want hanging-basket plants, trailers for patios, window boxes, planters, urns, or poolside plantings. The ivy-leaved types do not thrive in extreme heat. Thus in areas other than California, they usually give sparse bloom in the outdoor garden. Still, their shiny green ivylike foliage makes them garden favorites.

Some of the sturdiest are Colonel Baden-Powell, lilac-white; Galilee, pink; Gordon’s Glory, scarlet; and Willy, deep red. Slender-stemmed varieties, ideal for baskets, include the rose-pink Mrs. H. J. Jones, silvery pink, The Blush, and white-and-rose Enchantress. Rapid growing trailers, perfect to drape walls, are the pink Galilee, light purple Diener’s Lavender, and scarlet Intensity.

Episcia

While this is a gesneriad, and so related to the Saintpaulia, it is not a “red violet.” But the common name of Flame Violet may stimulate sales. We can use it and still be ethical only by including the proper identifying word, Episcia, in all advertising and promotion. I know of no company that purchases episcia seeds by the ounce. I sell seeds in mixtures at $5.00 per thousand. One company buys about 20,000 a year, two others each 5,000. This amount of seed is taken from plants in two flats each measuring 14 by 27 inches.

The wooden flats hold the episcias for 2 years. Then I dump them out (in the fall), trim out dead pieces, and replant in

73, 74. Haemanthus Katherinae, with a flower cluster like a bottle brush, is typical of the many unusual members of the amaryllis family. By the simple act of rubbing your hand across the flowers, pollination is achieved. The photo at right shows the results, a nice “potential” cash crop of berries. (Photograph by Author)

fresh soil. By this time they have multiplied enough to fill 6 flats of the same size.

Episcias send out stolons (runners) very much like the strawberry begonia (saxifrage). Flowers are white, yellow, pink, lavender, and red.

Episcias seem not to have the flower-producing capacity of African violets. However, many growers reduce bloom unnecessarily by putting plants in a spot lacking sun. True, they make excellent cover plants for under benches and in shady greenhouse nooks-and the foliage on the hairy ones become deeper colored in shade. But flowers are always scarce on plants grown in this way.

Since I grow my episcias almost exclusively for seeds, I plant rooted cuttings of several varieties in each wooden flat of peatmoss, sand, leafmold, and light loam. The bottom of the flat is first covered with clay pot chips and charcoal pieces. All varieties except the blue-flowered ones are placed where they receive 1500 foot-candles of light at 12:30 P.M. on a bright summer day. They are always kept well moistened and-note well-they require more water than African violets. In this bright spot, they produce maximum bloom. After pollination, the seed capsules form; they resemble bunches of small grapes. The red and lavenders are most congenial, hybridizing easily one with another. Here are some of my favorites-all easy to propagate, all generous with seeds:

Episcia acajou; Chocolate Soldier; E. cupreata, which doesn’t take full sun, but without some sun will fail to flower, the variety, viridifolia, which must have a blaze of light to bring out foliage and flower color; Silver Sheen; lilacina; and the longtime favorite reptans (fulgida) - (which most people think of as the “red violet”).

Episcia dianthiflora and E. punctata are of easy culture but they have one point of difference from other episcias, it takes 5 to 9 months for seeds to ripen, whereas the usual ripening period is 6 weeks. Greatly prized among collectors is the reptans variety Lady Lou, a variegated pink-green and brown-leaved form. Most people find it more difficult than the parent plant, and it often reverts back to the brown and green leaf coloration of E. reptans. The brown-leaved, pink-flowered Pinkishia, fairly new, is easy to propagate. Tropical Topaz should prove as easy as the plants it resemblesE. viridifolia, but I have found it somewhat difficult (though it may be that I do not have the true one). My plant came directly from Panama, as did the one bearing the species name. If it does prove easy, it will make a hit with window and greenhouse gardeners.

Episcias are best propagated through stolons or seeds; leaf cuttings take too long to produce sizable plants. Plant the stolons directly into pots or flats of light soil-or any good growing media. You can sell them from 2- or 3-inch pots-several in a pot or hanging basket-or as cuttings. If you propagate through seed, you will get a variety of colors and forms from a mixed package. I have reports from customers of several pink-flowered sorts springing up among seedlings grown from my seed mix. And foliage is as varied as that of coleus. These plants are a hybridizer’s dream, and flowers come in white, pink, lavender, red, and yellow.

In the episcia blossom, pollen ripens several days before the pistil is ready to receive it. When the pistil elongates and shows beyond the petal edge, pollination time is at hand. Choose pollen from a one- or two-day flower, and apply it to the pistil with a brush or your finger tip. You may have to pollinate on two successive days to assure success. The rounded seed capsule ripens in 6 weeks. Each seed has attached to it a tiny blob of albumen which sustains the embryo. Seeds are larger than those of African violets but require approximately the same care and seedlings flower in about the same time.

Cyclamen mites are the worst enemies. Prevent or exterminate them through the use of sterilized soil and sodium selenate, or sprays of malathion.

Landscaping ideas come from your heart, and from your mind. Anyone can make their front or backyard look like a professional gardener came in and completely renovated their property. It does not take a lot of skill to make all your landscaping dreams come true. All you really have to have is a little imagination and the will to get your hands dirty.

One very important part of landscaping is planning. The best thing to do when you are adding or fixing the landscape in your yard is to put it all down on paper first. Lay it out on paper so that you can see what you are doing and that you have enough space for what you have in mind. Take your time and think about what you are looking for in your yard. Remember to plan around large unmovable items like trees and outside buildings like sheds or garages. You are not going to be able to move these things so you want to make them fit in with your landscaping design.

Gloxinias grow best in porous soil. I use equal parts of leafmold or peatmoss and sandy soil with a 6-inch pot of processed cow or sheep manure for each bushel. Before planting, soak tubers

68. Rechsteineria cardinalis, with emerald green, soft leaves and flashy

red flowers, appeals equally to novice house plant gardeners and gesneriad connoisseurs. (Photograph by Author)

in a 1-200 solution of Carco-X or other fungicide. Apply the same solution to the potting soil of tubers, cuttings, seedlings or seed, and wait about two days before planting. Subsequent applications direct to moistened soil in the pots of growing gloxinias will keep them free of common troubles.

Start fertilizing as soon as you see flower buds, and continue at biweekly intervals until the plant reaches its peak of bloom. Use a fertilizer which contains the minor or trace elements (boron, manganese, etc.). If these are not present in the brand you are using, switch to another, or buy packaged trace elements and apply them in conjunction with the major-element fertilizer.

Shrubs need to have good soil. It needs to be well-drained soil as well. You may need to add compost to your soil before you plant your shrubs. Whenever you are ready to plant your shrubs, check the roots to make sure that the shrub is root bound. Loosen the roots with a knife and then you are ready to place the shrub in the hole. Make sure that you give your shrubs lots of water.

Do not worry if your landscape of shrubs looks kind of empty at first. Over time the shrubs will spread out and fill in the loose gaps. That is the best thing about shrub landscapes. You do not need to plant a lot to get a lot. If you want to, you can fill in some of the small empty spaces with flowers like perennials. You will be free to design a look that you and everyone else will enjoy.

Keywords: Greenhouse Gardening, Landscaping, Plants, Pool, Gardener, Landscape, Trees