Profiting from Seeds

Seeds Are Very Profitable

It is surprising how many seeds you can sell in your own neighbourhood. 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. 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.

How to Pack and Ship

Rooted or non rooted leaves are easily shipped. First inquire from your state ` 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 aluminium 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.

A Few Success Stories

Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Dingman of East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, describe their prefab 13- by 20-foot greenhouse as "a hobby house which we can truthfully say operates profitably —both financially and aesthetically." After his retirement from the navy, they bought a greenhouse and a year later, added a potting shed, 13 by 14 feet; then fluorescent lights in under-bench areas, thereby doubling capacity.

As their stock increased, spurred by favorable word-of-mouth advertising, buyers began visiting them. In addition to African violets, gloxinias, and other gesneriads, the Dingmans now sell annuals and perennials profitably.
African Violets Increase a Small Inheritance

When the Claybornes of St. Petersburg, Virginia, came into a small inheritance, Mr. Clayborne bought used material and built a greenhouse for African violets some of which had captured ten ribbons at the Richmond Flower Show. "Stop at the African Violet Hobby House," their sign invites. Since Mrs. Clayborne works as a nurse, she has limited time for sales just enough to meet expenses. Currently she is taking a florist course and has a standing sale of a few arrangements a week, proceeds from which go to the purchase of more African violet stock. It is the Claybornes' aim to make their business profitable enough to support them upon their retirement.

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Caring for Gloxinias

Soil Mixture, Disinfectant, and Fertilizer

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 tubersin 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.

Light and Water

Plenty of light is essential but avoid direct sunshine which burns leaves and wilts flowers. On the shaded top deck in the greenhouse, where I grow most of my gloxinias, they receive on a summer day about 2000 foot-candles of light at 12:30 P.M. Plants raised in poor light tend to grow too tall and are slow to bud.
Gloxinias grown under constant water level, that is, where the soil is always kept moist, bud much faster than those wa¬tered only when the soil obviously needs it.

Health Program and Storing

Thrips, red spider, cyclamen mite, and crown rot, are the worst annoyances. Good culture is the best preventative, but any of the "medicines" prescribed for other exotic house plants will work on gloxinias. If you are loath to use poisonous sprays and powders, try Carco-X on gloxinias and other tuberous-rooted plants. This tar derivative practically exterminates all the usual pests and is a marvelous fungicide as well. After plants finish flowering, gradually withhold water to dry off the tubers. I like to lay the pots on their sides while tubers are being dried off and, when they are dry, store them so in a 50-degree room. Or tubers can be removed from pots and stored in plastic sacks of vermiculite.

Advantages of Seed

Gloxinias can be propagated from seed, leaf or plant cuttings, or tuber divisions. You get the best return for your money as well as the best-formed tubers when you grow from seed. Species come true to form from seed; varieties do not, and you get a wide range of colors from a packet of seeds.

The seeds are very fine. Sown in February and grown under optimum conditions, they produce flowers by late May or June; those given only general care will not flower until August or September. Sow the seeds on light soil or in vermiculite or milled sphagnum and peatmoss. Sprinkle on top of the moistened medium, press down lightly, but do not cover with soil. Put glass over them and set in a warm house. If seeds are reasonably fresh, germination takes place in 7 to 10 days. As seedlings grow, plant them 2 inches apart in a flat of light soil or the soil recommended for tubers. When leaves touch, shift into 3-inch pots. Another shift—to 5-inchers—is advisable before blooming time. Liquid fertilizer applied at 2-week intervals will bring on a good quantity of flower buds.

Gloxinias from, Leaf Cuttings

Should you want more of some named hybrids, propagate by leaf cuttings. Cut the petiole about an inch long and insert it in any sterilized growing medium. Roots form in 4 to 6 weeks. Sometimes the old leaf dies after forming a new tuber, or it may send up a new plant or two before bowing out. If new plants show, cut off and pot up in 4-inch pots and give the same culture as for potted tubers. Otherwise, keep the tubers in the flat, giving them an occasional watering, until they sprout; then move to 4-inch pots.

Successful Gardening Ventures

In Virginia, a woman apparently doomed to bed and wheelchair found her means to recovery by having a greenhouse built on a city lot and running it for profit. She scouts seedsmen in China, India, Japan, and England for rare plants. Her knowledge of greenhouse operation came the hard way, by experimentation. Today her greenhouse is stocked to the brim with virtually every kind of gesneriad. Her articles in plant publications whet readers' appetites for the unusual things she sells over-the-counter and through the mail.

A business executive in New York set up a prefab greenhouse with no thought of operating it for profit. The house and potting shed cost approximately $3,000.00, although he saved $1,800.00 by erecting it himself and doing his own mason work. An achimenes authority, he soon found he had an over-supply which collector friends wanted. Currently he has a self-sustaining hobby which will bring in sizable dividends when he has more time for it. He has made a cross between a species sinningia and a rechsteineria, the tubers of which he sells for $20.00 each.

A young man in Oklahoma paid a substantial part of his college tuition with the proceeds of gesneriad sales from cuttings, tubers, and seeds sent through the mails. His less than 10-foot-square greenhouse is too small to accommodate specimen plants, but he can grow quantities of gesneriads in flats and hanging baskets. From these he harvests the material he sells.

One Sale Paid for My Greenhouse

At a national African violet convention a commercial dealer heard me talking about a white-flowered Episcia dianthiflora. Later he wrote, "If there is such a plant, we might be interested in buying propagation stock." The upshot was that I sold enough of these plants to pay for my greenhouse.

Formerly, I used to send out a listing of many kinds of African violets, gloxinias, and other gesneriads. Then I tried advertising, running my ads simultaneously with pertinent magazine articles. Results were good. After you have once advertised with the larger magazines, you receive monthly letters announcing future articles which usually feature photographs of the plants discussed. I found it paid to tie in ads with the issues that carried stories about the plants I was selling.

Currently I grow my gesneriads for commercial firms, selling tubers and seeds rather than plants. These are easily shipped, and I use the top cuttings of my rare gesneriads to propagate more material.


Geraniums (Pelargoniums)

Wherever you are located, you can be sure of an active demand for the geraniums (Pelargonium). You will sell bright-flowered singles and doubles as spring bedders, for foundation or patio plantings, for window boxes or planters. Zonals and Martha Wellingtons are specialties for Memorial Day, and the trailing ivies for poolside plantings and hanging baskets. The dwarf, cactus, fancy- and scented-leaved varieties are year-round sellers to collectors. The "unusual and fine-flowered" sorts (such a wide classification!) also appeal to collectors— both advanced and amateur. Since geraniums ship well, selling them to collectors alone can provide a year-round business if you wish to specialize.

Pelargonium Types

The species, seldom available from local florists or plant counters, are a first-rate specialty for collectors or hybridizers who want to cross species and hybrids. And where can you find these buyers? Join the International Geranium Society (address, page 257) and obtain leads on collectors from other Society members; or advertise in the Society's publication. Advertise in a national gardening magazine or run an ad in a local paper. You may find many collectors right in your own area who have previously had to "send away" for additions to their collections.

Tuberous-Rooted Pelargoniums

Tuberous-rooted pelargoniums are interesting but may have limited sales to only the more advanced collectors. However, if you intend to specialize, it will pay you to grow a few pots of them so as to have a well-rounded list to offer. These include some species with unusual coloring. Pelargonium gibbosum has nearly black-red flowers with chartreuse margins; P. frutaceum has petals spotted with yellow.

The Fragrant Ones

The scented-leaved sorts with odors suggestive of fruit, spice, or various perfumes appeal to everybody. Place a pot of the old favorite, rose-scented Pelargonium graveolens to the front of a counter, and as you talk with a customer invite him to press the leaves with his fingers to get a whiff of the delightful fragrance. Very likely he will want to buy the plant. Other favorite scenteds include the lemon P. crispum, peppermint P. tomento-sium, coconut P. grossularioides, nutmeg P. fragrans, apple P. odoratissimum, and apricot P. Ninon. The pungence of pine is given off by the leaves of P. denticulatum.
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.

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Dutch Bulbs for Growing and Fragrance

Bulbs are outstanding plants.They are colorful, showy, and generally easy to grow. Many have beautiful evergreen foliage; with others, the leaves ripen after flowering and the bulbs are stored and started again, year after year. Some bulbs are hardy, others, tender, though what is and is not hardy in a particular area is a matter of winter temperature averages. In cold regions, tender types tuberous begonias, gloxinias, calla lilies, and gloriosa lilies can be treated like summer container plants. This gives the gardener a wide variety to grow from earliest spring to late fall.

Dutch Bulbs

Included in this group are crocus, snowdrops, eranthis or winter aconites, chionodoxas, scillas, grape hyacinths, leucojums or snowflakes, Dutch hyacinths, daffodils, and tulips, the pride of northern spring gardens. Though hardy, they are not adapted to containers outdoors where temperatures drop much below freezing. They require the protection of a shed, unheated cellar or cold frame. Pots can also be dug into a trench in the ground for the winter and covered with a thick blanket of marsh hay or straw. Where temperatures do not go below freezing, Dutch bulbs can be left outdoors in containers over the winter.

For best results, start with fresh, firm, large-sized bulbs each fall. Insure good drainage in the bottom of each pot and use a light soil with bone meal added. If in clay pots, plunge during the rooting period in damp peat moss to prevent rapid drying out. If this occurs too often, roots will be injured and flowers will be poor. When weather permits, after the danger of freezing passes, put containers outside where they are to flower or in a nursery row until they reach the bud stage. After blooming, place containers where foliage can ripen unseen.

For Fragrance

Concentrate on Dutch hyacinths, excellent for bedding large planter boxes or raised beds. Daffodils look well grouped around trees or large shrubs, as birches and forsythias. Tulips, formal in character, combine delightfully with pansies, violas, wall flowers, forget-me-nots, marguerites, English daisies, and annual candytuft.

As already indicated, in cold areas, Dutch bulbs cannot be potted or planted in small window boxes and left outdoors unprotected for the winter. They can, however, be set out in large planters and boxes, deep and wide enough to contain plenty of soil. Containers should be one and a half to two feet deep and about two feet wide. Set bulbs, with at least six inches of soil above them, planting them early enough in the fall so that they can make root growth before soil freezes hard. In penthouse gardens in New York City, Dutch bulbs have been grown successfully in this way, but it is always a risk. It makes no difference whether containers are made of wood, concrete, or other material; it is the amount of soil they hold that counts.

Actually, it is not the freezing of the soil that injures bulbs (this occurs in open ground), but it is the pressure and counter pressure exerted by frost on the sides of containers, which are firm and do not give. As a result, bulbs are bruised and thrust out of the soil, their roots torn. Where there is no hard freeze, but sufficient cold weather, hardy bulbs can be grown successfully in containers of small size.