12. Popular Spring Bedding Plants

Owners of small "commercial" greenhouses are naturally alert for ways to save labor and stretch their producing areas. Both ends can be served by starting annuals (including bed­ding plants) and tender perennials in flats in late winter or early spring, and moving them to cold frames as soon as freez­ing -weather is past. Once the flats are moved out, the green­house space can be filled with other things.

Selling plants in flats of a dozen to 100 or more avoids the work of potting. Most small plants retail at about 50 to 60 cents per dozen, with the possible exception of double petunias, which usually run to twice that much. Potted singly, these same plants retail for 25 to 39 cents apiece, but to rate that price range the potted plants will also have to be grown a bit larger than is necessary in flats.

Grow the plants in full sun in a cool house, to keep them bushy. Ageratum, marigold, petunias, and many of the lesser annuals such as dwarf phlox, verbena, and torenia, can be grown and sold in flats, a dozen or more plants to the flat (the small-sized "unit" flats, such as Market-Paks, are excellent), or potted and sold in 2- or 3-inch individual pots. You may want to add a few flats of pansies or violas to offer as spring bedders, or you might find it more profitable to consider them as a spe­cial profit-making project. (See page 151.)

If you sell to a market in your city, ask them to save your empty flats. You pick them up when they are empty—thus cut­ting your cost of supplies.

The following, with brief descriptions, are some of the plants small greenhouse owners have found to be steady, profitable items. The cultural hints I offer are, of course, based on the timing of the seasons, weather, etc., in my area. Be sure you take your own local conditions into consideration in applying my recommendations (or anyone's) as to seeding time, shifting to the outdoors, treatment of semi hardy plants, and so forth.

Ageratum

The ever-popular ageratum, with its white or blue flowers, makes a splendid plant in flats or pots for counter sales. Plant the seeds in early February for salable plants in May. These grow best in a cool greenhouse with a temperature around 50 degrees. Transplant your seedlings when they get to be an inch or so high, spacing them about 2 inches apart. They will bud and bloom in these flats and can be sold directly in them. If you want to pot singly, do it before they begin crowding one another in the flat. Ageratum may be troubled by mealy bugs, aphids, and thrips. A malathion spray will control them all.

Alyssum

Although sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) is a tender perennial, it is treated in the north as an annual. It can be started in the 50-degree greenhouse. January seed-planting should assure salable plants in April. Culture approximates that of ageratum, and the sweet alyssum can be propagated by cuttings and rooted in any growing media. If your greenhouse is crowded, move the flats of sweet alyssum to the cold frame as soon as danger of freezing is past.

38, 39, 40, 41. Four easy-to-grow and even easier-to-sell bedding plants: Swiss Giant pansy (top left); Crown Jewels petunia (top right); Snow-flake impatiens (bottom left); and Red Rainbow coleus. (Courtesy, Northrup-King & Co., W. Atlee Burpee Co., George W. Park Seed Co., and George J. Ball, Inc.)

Coleus

Coleus is one of America's most popular bedding plants, but it is also used widely to add color to window boxes and dish gardens, or as a potted plant for window gardens.

If you want a great variety in color and form, grow coleus from seed. Sprinkle the seed on light soil or other growing media in a flat or pan. Keep moistened and at a 70-degree tem­perature. Germination starts within a week. Some of the seed­lings will be all-green; these should be discarded, for they are not desirable, lacking the good rich coloring most people want in their coleus. When the young plants begin to crowd each other, transplant individually into 2-inch pots, or plant them into flats of soil, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Seed planted in late January will give you sturdy colorful plants by early May.

If you already have desirable plants you can increase them by cuttings. It takes only 4 to 6 weeks to get established plants from cuttings. Minimum temperature for coleus is 60 degrees. They require no shade and will grow in any average green­house soil. In case you pot them, pay strict attention to water­ing—you'll find they get very thirsty in small pots.

Eliminate mealy bugs—the chief insect enemy—with mala-thion spray; or if the greenhouse is a free-standing model not attached to your house, the more deadly parathion can be employed with good results. Use it with great care.

Impatiens

Impatiens—often called patience, busy Lizzie, or touch-me-not—has a translucent stem.  Leaves are green, reddish,  or variegated green and white. These attractive little plants pro­duce gay flowers of white, pink, red, or purple.

Any friable soil, in 65-degree temperature, is well adapted to impatiens. Seed culture is much like that of coleus, and you can grow impatiens from seed to bloom in 6 months. Cuttings taken in January and rooted in any media will be ready for 2- or 3-inch pots by April.

Thrips and aphids are the most bothersome pests and can easily be destroyed by malathion.

Iresine

Iresine (eye-re-sy'ne), known as blood-leaf or chicken giz­zard plant, is a popular bedding, window box, or window gar­den plant and can be grown in full light in a 60-degree house.

Propagation is generally by cuttings. Taken in January and rooted in light soil or other media, they will be ready for 2-inch pots by April, or can be left in the flats and sold directly from them. If you intend selling them from the flats, it is better to plant the cuttings directly into the soil. Foliage color deepens with 10-day applications of fish emulsion or soluble chemical fertilizer.

Control their enemies, thrips and aphids, with malathion.

Marigold

The brilliantly colored marigolds that grace nearly every garden can become a source of profit for the home greenhouse grower. Sow the seed in ordinary soil in late February. Pot up as growth indicates, and you will have salable plants by mid-May. If you want the extra greenhouse space, transfer the mari­gold flats to a cold frame or lath house once the danger of frost is over. In this way, they occupy space for only 6 to 8 weeks. A few more weeks in the cold frame and they are ready to be sold in the same flats they were grown in.

42, 43, 44, 45. Four ever-popular annuals that have a double sales appeal; they are beautiful to grow and to cut: French dwarf marigold Naughty Marietta (top left); Gypsophila elegans or annual babysbreath (top right); Centaurea cyanus or cornflower, also called Bachelor's Button (bottom left); and Burpee's Giant heat-resistant sweet peas. (Courtesy, Bodger Seeds, Ltd., and W. Atlee Burpee)

Petunias

Petunias are among the best spring sellers. Hybridizers have done so much work on breeding diverse varieties that it is dif­ficult to recognize the old petunia form in some of the new double beauties. Grow your petunias from the best seed you can obtain; it costs very little more than inferior seed and as­sures you petunias different enough to sell at a premium to gardeners in your community or to a retailer.

Sow petunia seed in mid-January for flowering plants by the first week in May. Transplant the seedlings to flats of average greenhouse soil, spacing them about 2 inches apart. They can be grown on and sold directly from these flats; or, as they crowd one another, you can pot some of them in 2- or 3-inch pots. Petunias do well in 65 to 75 degrees F. and can stand full sunlight. If growing them in pots be sure to check carefully for water; when the sunshine is bright they require watering nearly every day. If you are short of greenhouse room, shift your petunias to the cold frame as soon as hard frost no longer threatens.

Aphids are their worst trouble, but in this case, too, mala-thion makes short work of the pests.

Lobelia

With its bright blue flowers, lobelia is a popular springtime seller. Sow the seed in March in fine moist soil. If kept at 60-degree temperatures, the seeds germinate rapidly and will be ready to shift into flats or pots in April. You can harden them off by placing them in the cold frame in April or you can grow them on in the greenhouse.

Flowering Tobacco

Nicotiana or flowering tobacco, a tender perennial, is usually treated as an annual and most northern gardeners replace it every year. The most popular form is 32-inch high affinis or Jasmine tobacco. This evening bloomer is deliciously scented. There is also a compact dwarf variety, White Bedder, which blooms in the daytime. Most of the rosy-red kinds are non-fragrant but some affinis hybrids in shades of rose, red, and crimson have a wonderful fragrance.

Sow the seed in early March, cover with fine sand and germi­nate in 60-degree temperature. Plants will be ready for pots or flats in early April.

Salvia

Salvia, often called scarlet sage, comes in compact dwarf forms, also in taller varieties. Start the seeds in mid-February. Accord salvia the same treatment as lobelia.

The salvia plants you sell in the spring will more than likely be minus flowers, but experienced gardeners will purchase these plants anyhow because they know that salvia will lend brilliant red to the garden later on. You may be able to in­crease sales by suggesting as companion plants to salvias some of the dusty millers (Senecio cineraria), artemisia, or centaurea. These plants have wonderful silvery foliage and make perfect complements to the red salvia flowers.

Display a few seed packets showing the bright red salvia flowers. This will give novice gardeners an idea of the color of the flowers. Indeed, with any of the small plants you sell from pots or flats it is always a good idea to have displayed near them a gaily colored seed packet or poster detailing their colors.

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