ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603080018
SECTION: LAWN & GARDEN PAGE: LG-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY GLEINER STAFF WRITER
RAISING a plant is a lot like raising a child. The genetic information is already inside, but it takes a lot of nurturing, feeding and the right conditions to transform a tiny living thing into a mature adult. And no one brings up their children - or their plants- in the same way.
Just as restaurants differ, so do greenhouses. Growing techniques, operations and facilities are not all the same; neither are the philosophies or foci of the growers.
We looked below the surface of four area greenhouse and nursery businesses to get the real dirt - to see how they bring the beginnings of a plant to a marketable product and how they choose what they'll offer to beautify our living spaces.
Obenchain's Greenhouses
3634 Shenandoah Ave. N.W., Roanoke
342-3089
The brown aprons hanging in the washroom will soon serve as beacons for customers with questions, seeking advice and looking for service at Obenchain's Greenhouses in Roanoke. And that's the way Tom and Jane Monroe, owners of the business for 15 years, like it.
They pride themselves not only on hardy, healthy plants, shrubs and trees, but also on being able to assist customers in ways that less-knowledgeable purveyors of nursery stock cannot.
``Our main goal is have quality plants, quality service. If you need a question answered, you know someone here can answer it.
``This is the worst time of year coming up,'' Tom continued. ``We have pretty days and people want to forget that, yes, we have frost in this valley up to May. They come in and they want to buy. You try to keep them from buying plants that could freeze. You know they might go somewhere else and see it and they're going to buy it there; no one there will advise them not to.''
This time of year, Jane is busy transplanting seedlings and selling hardier, frost-resistant varieties - ``pansies, that's about it.''
Tom handles the business end and is the seed-meister. Obenchain's starts almost everything from seed, and does use some cuttings. Tom manually makes the seed rows in the flats, then uses an electric device, called a vibrator, to drop the seeds into the soil, evenly spaced.
He gently places each tray on a heat mat that covers the shelving above the tables. After germination, the trays will be moved off the heat mat to other shelves. When the seedlings are large enough, they will be transplanted to the flats in which they're sold. A few plants are uprooted twice.
This is truly a hands-on operation.
After settling in for a few weeks, plants are fertilized on a regular schedule. ``It takes the right amount of fertilizer at the right time. Don't keep them too wet; don't keep them too dry,'' he said.
Plants are also checked for bugs. ``We don't spray the vegetable plants unless we get aphids,'' Jane said.
Starting with good cuttings and quality seeds is a must - ``You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear,'' Tom said.
When almost at market size, the plants go to an adjacent greenhouse, kept barely above freezing this time of year. ``You get them almost to where you want them, then put them in a house that holds them,'' Jane explained. ``They grow just a little more.'' The plants are hardened off, making them sturdier for changing temperatures and weather conditions.
During the past 15 years, the Monroes have seen people become more interested in creating gardens at their homes. They bought the nursery after having worked for a cut-flower grower in Connecticut, fulfilling a dream of owning their own business. The physical plant has more than doubled since they bought it to 17 greenhouses (each domed-shaped bay is considered a greenhouse) on either side of Shenandoah Avenue. An open area toward the back offers trees, shrubs and bushes.
Inside, plants are available to span early spring to fall gardens, as well as flats of vegetables and herbs.
After 40 years of growing things, Tom sometimes thinks about retirement. ``This is a 24-hour-a-day responsibility. From now until June, it's seven days a week. I'm going to become a Wal-Mart greeter,'' he kidded.
``He'll never get this out of his blood,'' Jane said.
Walter's Greenhouse
1356 Coopers Cove Road, Hardy 427-3578|
On the Roanoke City Market or take Virginia 116 south from Roanoke toward Burnt Chimney. Turn left onto Virginia 681 at the sign. Go 1.5 miles. The greenhouses are on the right, next to the big red barn.
Ray Walter pushes trays of just-planted seeds along a monorail toward an incubator. A former engineer, he designed both devices.
The trays sit on a metal rack suspended from a track made of pipes that allows him to move plants ``from any spot in any greenhouse to any spot in any other greenhouse,'' he said. One to four tiers of racks can be suspended vertically, as needed.
The monorail is the first sign when entering the Walterses' greenhouses on Windy Gap Mountain that technology plays a big part in the efficiency of the operation.
The other half of the equation is Ray's wife, Rosalin. She seems to have an inherent connection with the plants themselves. Her excitement over each variety of plant is contagious. ``See that red bloom over there,'' she points out. ``That's a new true red double flower ivy geranium. I should have picked off the bloom, but I wanted to enjoy it for a little bit first,'' she said.
It's hard to keep up with her as she almost jogs up and down the aisles.
The Walterses pride themselves in carrying the new and unusual, but plants that also grow well in this area. They carry a lot of the old standbys, sometimes in new colors or variations.
They start from seeds and cuttings, some of which are derived from cell divisions grown in tissue culture, rather than the standard chop-and-root method.
``When we buy cuttings from Proven Winners, we have to sign an agreement that we will not propagate the plants,'' Ray explained. ``If we didn't honor that [agreement], they wouldn't make any money and we wouldn't have more new varieties from them.''
``See this impatiens,'' Rosalin demonstrated, cupping a larger-than-usual orange-and-maroon blossom (she calls it a Hokie impatiens). ``These do better; they're much bigger. The cuttings are expensive, but they're worth it.''
Ray has rigged up his own version of a commercially available seeding system. Seeds are sprinkled onto a metal tray with tiny holes that correspond to the divisions in plant flats. Suction from an old shop vacuum adheres the seeds onto the tray only where the holes are. The tray can then be tipped upside down and the extra seeds collected. The tray is inverted onto a flat containing a growing medium and the seeds drop onto it, in perfect position, when the vacuum is shut off.
The flats then go into the incubator Ray designed for germination.
When they come out, four days to two weeks later, Rosalin and her daughter and son-in-law, who recently joined the business, will transplant the seedlings into pots or flats. There doesn't seem to be any technological substitute for transplanting by hand.
The plants continue to grow on tabletops built on slides. As the tables are moved together or apart, an aisle appears or disappears. ``We only need one aisle [at a time]. This gives us more growing space,'' Ray explained.
Growing space is at a premium here. On a day in late February, the greenhouse already was bursting with flats, pots and hanging baskets. The Walterses have expanded every year since they started the business 12 years ago. Their high efficiency has allowed them to keep personnel to a minimum.
Ray is in the midst of adding on yet another greenhouse, this one with innovative infrared heat. Of course, the monorail will extend into the new greenhouse.
Technology has also created their computerized, closed-cycle watering/fertilizing system. The tabletops have troughs with holes strategically placed under the plants. The tops, divided into zones, are flooded from a 1,000-gallon tank for preset amounts of time. What is not absorbed by the plants flows back into the tank. There is no runoff to contaminate the ground water.
When the plants have reached maturity, they are hardened in unheated - or barely heated - greenhouses. ``Pansies and primrose can go down to 25 degrees,'' Rosalin said. ``If you go to discount stores, the plants are soft - they haven't been hardened off. If the plants wilt when you put them in, they weren't hardened.
Rosalin talks about her flowers as if they were her children. Even during her busiest times on the city market, she can instantly tell you what each of her babies will look like when it grows up and how to care for it so it will.
``We pride ourselves on our motto,'' Ray said. ``We grow and know every plant we sell.''
Townside Gardens
3614 Franklin Road, Roanoke
344-7025
David Winston likens his and partner Andy Williams' venture into the plant business to jumping off a cliff. Williams wanted to supplement his income; Winston was looking for something new to do.
The two built up a loyal local clientele at their greenhouses in Natural Bridge, but knew they would have to expand if they wanted to support both their families from the business. They believed Roanoke needed a quality garden center - ``No one was doing quality and convenience,'' Winston said. They opened Townside Gardens 10 years ago in a small lot on Franklin Road in Roanoke, wedged between Dunkin Donuts and the Waffle House.
Winston and Williams say their niche is service, knowledge and quality. They sell the unusual, including orchids, and keep their customers' needs in mind rather than minimizing production costs, according to Winston.
Williams, whose degree in agriculture was at least related to things green, and Winston, whose B.A. in chemistry was far afield from growing plants, are admittedly self-taught. Their operations methods and production choices are also home-grown.
``We grew perennials at the advice of my wife,'' Winston said, ``and happened upon Barb Nelson [their greenhouse manager], who had a degree in horticulture and greenhouse experience. We all learned together.''
Although their retail outlet is small, it's profitable because they grow their own plant materials and sell little else.
``We can't compete on volume or price [with larger stores]. I can buy fertilizer cheaper at Lowe's than I can from my supplier,'' Winston explained, because of their relatively low demand.
``We're going to grow the best we can,'' Winston said, whether that's seeds, cuttings or plugs (seedlings).
In an industry where labor is the largest production expense, plugs are becoming more popular. The plugs arrive already set into tiny compartments of soil mixture in trays. ``When you transplant them,'' Winston explained, ``they already have an undisturbed cube of root. They take off faster.''
Newly planted trays are placed into a homemade germination chamber, made from a grocery store's rolling cart. Winston and Williams enclosed the cart on three sides, insulated it and created a docking bay for it in a wall. The cart is wheeled into the bay and heated by vertically mounted fluorescent bulbs.
After germination, the trays are placed in a warmer greenhouse on benches heated from below. Again, the apparatus is homemade. ``We got an old boiler from a bank,'' Winston explained.
They have had such success with bottom-heated plants that they run plastic tubing under the perimeter of the benches their plants sit on, using an oil-fired forced air system to heat them.
To use the space in their four greenhouses efficiently, the partners have made their own versions of commercially available rolling benches out of swimming pool ladder pipe.
Seedlings are transplanted into packs to be sold as is or to be stepped up into larger containers. When almost fully grown, they are hardened.
Winston and Williams have learned a lot through trial by fire - their greenhouses are in a cold spot, the water is high in limestone and lacking in some necessary minerals.
``Each time we cured one thing, another would be uncovered,'' Winston said. ``In the long run, it has made us better growers.''
Winston's specialty is orchids - ``A friend innocently told me how easy they were to grow; now I can convince people they can grow them at home,'' which is where he maintains about 200 plants at a time.
He and his partner delight in introducing customers to what's new and different. ``We have the greatest hits and we have weird stuff,'' Winston chuckled. He rattled off names - bear's britches, fannie's aster, lungwort, toad lily.
People have become more sophisticated in what they'll grow, Winston pointed out. ``They're willing to try a larger palate of plant, perennials, shrubs, etc.''
Spring is an intense time for the two partners, who are content with the seasonal nature of their business. ``We have the satisfaction of creating something from nothing,'' Winston said.
They have no plans to explore other avenues or to add more stores, although they would like to expand their cramped space.
``We look longingly at the Waffle House parking lot,'' Winston said.
Thornton's Greenhouses
and Snowville Nursery
Greenhouse Road, Snowville
639-5691
Take exit 114 off Interstate 81. Turn left onto Virginia 8 south; go 5 miles, then right into Virginia 693 (Childress Road); go 8 miles, then left onto Virginia 693 (Lead Mine Road); go 2.4 miles, then left onto Virginia 704 (Greenhouse Road).
Carl Mitchell is updating a 25-year-old business for the '90s.
``There's a new breed of gardener,'' Mitchell said. ``When we used to be able to impress our friends with our cars, now we'll impress them with instant landscapes.''
Mitchell and his wife, Lori, bought Thornton's Greenhouses in Snowville 18 months ago. Since then, Mitchell has been busy maintaining the old while bringing in the new.
He uses mostly plugs when starting his plants, a fairly new technology, preferring to buy ready-made trays of seedlings rather than the more labor-intensive hand planting.
This allows him to control his growing space, he said, and to keep down the heating costs, one of his largest expenses.
``If we started from seeds, we would have to run extra greenhouses in January and February. And we're not tying up space with seeds,'' he explained.
Mitchell buys seeds and cuttings for varieties that are not available as plugs, and plants some heirloom plants, such as ones from the Thornton family. ``Connie [Thornton] gave us some heirloom seeds,'' Glenna Reece, the greenhouse manager, said. ``Some she was well known for, like mortgage lifter tomatoes.''
Heat mats and incubators are used only for germination, then plants are stepped up to larger containers once or twice, depending on the final size of the plant. ``Classically, people have bought three-, four- or six-packs,'' Mitchell said. ``Now, a lot of customers want bigger plants, so we're going into pots and containers rather than packs.''
Fertilizing methods have also been updated. Organic materials, such as liquid kelp and manure tea, are being used. Mitchell practices integrated pest management - the judicious use of chemicals, controlling bugs with various methods, such as companion planting and beneficial pests.
Mitchell is leaving all options open, though.
``I'm the first one to tell you we have to have some control for pests. I'm not going to lose a crop. We do minimum chemical use,'' but not without first tracking pest populations and not applying insecticides until a certain threshold has been reached.
Mitchell's day-to-day operations incorporate mostly traditional methods - ``I've just bought this. I can't change everything at once,'' he said. His ideas for his stock are contemporary, at the least.
He just brought in topiary and says he hopes combination pots and window boxes that blend with customers' homes will be one of his business' trademarks.
``You bring in a picture of your home and a pot and we'll design the planting for you,'' he said. He and his staff will match colors and styles in creating landscaping, vegetables gardens, even patio plantings.
Mitchell aims his sights on having a complete landscaping service, including, along with shrubs and trees, mulch, soil amendments, paving stones, patio blocks and garden accessories. He wants to be the one-stop shop for gardeners.
``We look for new, unusual plant materials that are good for Southwestern Virginia,'' he said. ``We'll have 2,500 varieties this spring.
``If it's got sex appeal, we'll have it,'' he added. He mentioned new varieties of witch hazel with red, yellow or bronze blooms, new geraniums, purple wave petunias and the all-America selections.
The greenhouses are brimming with sweet-faced pansies and violas, baskets of geraniums still with room to grow, fuschias, scented geraniums and pots of dormant plants, ready to go in the ground.
``Trees and shrubs are ready to plant in March because the spring rains will help the root system get established,'' Mitchell explained. ``There won't be any above-ground activity.''
Design bowls (pots with combinations of plants in keeping with house colors and styles) and improvements to home exteriors with landscaping are areas Mitchell feels are ready for a new burst of growth. ``We have our good cars, our computers and have finished interior renovations. This is the area yuppiedom is hitting.''
There are no substitutes for quality and service, though, and Mitchell is not willing to sacrifice that for the sake of style. ``You need to know the plant material,'' he said. ``How many times can you mislead a customer before they won't come back?''
LENGTH: Long : 306 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. ROGER HART/Staff. Ideal for beds & pots: Primrose, aby CNBspring perennial from Walter's Greenhouse in Hardy. (ran on LG-1).
2. Rosalin Walters of Walter's Greenhouse in Hardy hoses down a crop
of pansies. 3. NANCY GLEINER. David Winston, co-owner of Townside
Gardens, grows orchids such as these to sell in his greenhouse.
color. 4. Sparkler, a new annual, is one of the hybrids offered at
Walter's Greenhouse. color. 5. ROGER HART/Staff. At Walter's
Greenhouse in Hardy, rows of Lavender sprouts await planting.