InsatiableGardener.com

by InsatiableGardener.com

House Plants

A young man in Oklahoma made a success of growing many kinds of house plants in a 6- by 9-foot plastic-covered greenhouse. Total outlay for all materials was $70.00, and it was not unusual for him to net that amount in a single month.

An enthusiast in Maine invested $75.00 to transform an old chicken coop into a small lean-to greenhouse. She soon developed it into a profitable hobby, and today she owns and operates four large greenhouses. Her specialties are potted gesneriads (African violets, etc.) and bedding plants, such as coleus, wax begonias, and geraniums.

And what about growing plants just for their seeds? Seeds of newer varieties of saintpaulias often bring as much as $750.00 per ounce! There is also a steady market for seed of rare plants and extra-fine strains of garden and house plants.

Help Yourself — Take Courses

If you want to enlarge your field of operation you can learn to be a florist or landscape nurseryman by taking a correspondence or extension course. Nearly every state university gives extension courses; nationally known and advertised florist and landscape schools teach you through the mail.

These schools have prominent horticulturists on their staffs, and they stand ready to help with all of your “growing and selling” problems. One of the landscape schools is now adding to its curriculum a course in greenhouse growing and management.

My brother, a major in the United States Army, will retire at the age of forty-three. Looking ahead, he and his wife took a florist course. Upon retirement, they will build and stock a small greenhouse and open a florist shop.

Glass-House Gardener s Club

Amateur greenhouse growers in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have formed a group which might well be emulated in other cities. They call themselves the Glass-House Gardener’s Club. The members exchange growing methods as well as successes and failures. This makes for easier under-glass growing for all and offers pleasant social contact, too.

Once you have established your own greenhouse business, you won’t mind the fact that most of the plants are only rent-paying tenants (or profit-making transients). You will enjoy these plant “guests” because they pay expenses and net you some profit too—profit that, if nothing else, will permit you to enjoy your own plants without tight-budget worries. “Money doesn’t grow on trees,” you’ll find, but you can make it grow in a home greenhouse.

The temperature you maintain in your greenhouse plays an important part in plant growth. Greenhouses are classified as cold houses (unheated), cool houses (55 to 60 degrees at night), or warm houses (60 to 70 degrees at night). Whenever night temperatures are cited you should figure on a daytime requirement about 10 degrees higher. Each of these three classes of greenhouses is suitable for growing certain kinds of saleable plants.

If you live where outdoor night temperatures never dip below 32 degrees, you can run a cold (unheated) greenhouse the year round. Otherwise, you might find it profitable to operate a cold greenhouse until late fall, close it down during the coldest winter months, then resume operations in early spring. In such a house, you can make money on annuals, spring-flowering bulbs, and bedding plants by forcing or starting them in late February or early March. The cold greenhouse is also an excellent place for growing lettuce.

In summer, use the unheated greenhouse for tomatoes, seedling perennials, or almost any plant that flowers in summer. In this type of greenhouse, winter-grown plants should be planted directly into the bench soil. Here they will withstand lower temperatures than if planted in pots. In the following lists are plants I have found profitable to grow under the various conditions specified

FLOWERING PLANTS FOR THE UNHEATED GREENHOUSE

Spring

Anemone* Larkspur

Astilbe Lily-of-the-Valley

Carnation Narcissus*

Columbine Pansies

Crocus* Primrose

Cyclamen* Saxifraga

Daffodil* Scilla*

Forget-me-not Sedum

(Myosotis) Tulip*

Fritillaria* Viola

Hyacinth* Violet

Iris*

Summer

Begonia (Tuberous and Campanula

semperflorens) Canna*

Browallia Carnation

Calceolaria Celosia

(* Denotes plant usually grown from a bulb, corm, or tuber.)

Chrysanthemum Hibiscus

Crinum* Lobelia

Delphinium Oxalis *

Dutchman’s Pipe Petunia

(Aristolochia) Sedum

Flowering Tobacco Sweet Peas

(Nicotiana) Tigr idia *

Geranium Vallota*

(Pelargonium) Watsonia *

Autumn

Carnation Nerine*

Chrysanthemum Sternbergia*

Gladiolus* Sedum

Hosta* Sempervivum

Kniphofia* Zephryanthes

Lily*

Winter

Anemone* Iris alata9

Crocus* Jasmine

Cyclamen neapolitanum* Saxifraga

Erica Solanum

Fatsia Viburnum

Freesia* Violets

THE COOL GREENHOUSE

In the cool house the night temperature in winter should be about 55 to 60 degrees with the usual rise of 10 degrees during the day. In this temperature range, you can grow a variety of plants including all of those suggested for the unheated green house, as well as the plants in the following list, and your heating costs will be far less than those in a warm house of the same size.

FLOWERING PLANTS FOR THE COOL HOUSE

(Winter night temperature: 55-60 degrees.)

Spring

Aquilegia

(Columbine) Azalea Browallia

Camellia Carnation Cineraria Clematis

THE PRACTICAL GREENHOUSE FOR YOU

Clivia* Lachenalia*

Convallaria Lilium*

(Lily-of-the-V’alley) * Nasturtium

Freesia a (Tropaeolum)

Geranium Rhododendron

(Pelargonium) Summer

Achimenes* Clematis

Agapanthus* Morning Glory

Asarina (Convolvulus)

(Maurandia) Cup-and-Saucer Vine

Begonia (Cobea scandens)

(all types) Crinum *

Bougainvillea Datura

Cacti Fuchsia

(Some varieties) Habranthus0

Caladium* Hoya

Calceolaria Hydrangea

Campanula Impatiens

Canna* Lantana

Carnation

Autumn

Bignonia Mignonette

Browallia Nerine*

Chrysanthemum Salvia

Fatsia Streptocarpus

Flowering Maple Vallota*

(Abutilon)

Winter

Begonia Chrysanthemum

(Fibrous-rooted) Cineraria

Bouvardia Cyclamen*

Carnation Stocks
Christmas Rose

(Helleborus Niger)

THE WARM HOUSE

The actual temperature range of a warm house is 60 to 70 degrees during winter nights. However, most of those who grow African violets, gloxinias, and so forth, as well as foliage plants of tropical origin and nature, find they get more rapid leaf growth and plant increase when the night temperature is 2 to 5 degrees higher than that range. The warm house is also used for growing many of the “stove” plants described in old garden encyclopedias and English gardening books.

(Winter night temperatures: 60-70 degrees.) Spring

Acacia Bromeliads

Aeschynanthus (various species)

(Trichosporum) Calceolaria

Amaryllis* Camellia

Arum* Carnation

Azalea Cineraria

Begonias Epiphyllum

(Tuberous,* semperflorens, Episcia

some rex) Freesia*