MEMBER PROFILE 



this has been incorporated in the 

 enlarged work area at the rear of 

 the new shop; the present cooler 

 will remain where it is and be used 

 for customers to choose their own 

 cut flowers. 



The official grand opening won't 

 be until a year from now, when 

 everything's done, but the 

 Hutchinses hope to have the ex- 

 panded shop ready for their tradi- 

 tional Christmas open house — al- 

 ways the Saturday after Thanksgiv- 

 ing ("we transform the shop from 

 fall to winter in one night"). There 

 are poinsettias and homemade 

 cookies and a giveaway — and this 

 year, "Rudolph's Workshop," an area 

 for do-it-yourself swag and wreath 

 decorating — but attendance "is of- 

 ten the same people" and the new 

 shop could give numbers a boost. 



THE PRESENT SHOP is a big high 

 room, its height softened by 

 branches painted white and fas- 

 tened to the wooden ceiling and 

 strung with tiny lights. A broad "L"- 

 shaped counter separates a gener- 

 ous work area from the rest of the 

 space. 



Products and services are tradi- 

 tional: flowers have always been 

 central. Riff belongs to FTDA, 

 Teiaflora, and Carik — "weddings are 

 big;" arrangements are full, "very 

 country;" arrangements using a mix 

 of dried and artificial material also 

 sell well; baskets are popular. There 

 are house plants, but Linda keeps 

 only a few on hand and orders on a 

 weekly basis. 



The North Country seems less af- 

 fected by trends: "There's a lot of 

 wood and antiques up here and the 

 chrome-and-glass and black-and- 

 white that were so fashionable 

 down south never made it through 

 the notch." But some do arrive — it 

 takes about five years. Right now, 

 the decorative banners that people 

 hang from their houses are begin- 

 ning to sell. 



Behind — and attached to — the 



shop is a 28'x48' double-poly New 

 Englander, put up five years ago. 

 The setup is simple — benches along 

 the four sides, four wood/wire/ce- 

 ment block benches in the center, 

 weed mat on crushed stone. Plants 

 are watered by hand and fed with a 

 hozon. The Hutchinses buy in most 

 of their holiday plants (Easter lilies, 

 cyclamen), but right now Dave has a 

 nice house of poinsettias growing 

 from cuttings potted up in )uly. 

 ("Customers like this — they like to 

 see how the crop is doing") 



A car and a van deliver within a 

 35-mile radius. Distance is rela- 



tive — "Up here, people drive two 

 hours to shop at a mall (Concord or 

 Conway); I buy from Claussen's 

 (Colchester, Vermont); my wholesaler 

 comes out from Portland. Long dis- 

 tances are part of the way of life." 



Another part of the life here is 

 working several trades in order to 

 make a living. This is true with the 

 Hutchinses. Back at their home on 

 North Road, three homemade 

 double-poIy greenhouses with a 

 combined growing space of about 

 8500 square feet are used to pro- 

 duce a spring bedding crop. Dave 

 starts seed in mid-)anuary; this year, 



y/^NOTES 



The oncoming cool temperatures and low light are reminiscent of 

 last spring's growing conditions. We wrestled with a whole host of 

 problems then, and one that continues to crop up is botrytis. I've 

 talked about this problem before, but last year was a test case on 

 control. Nurseries and perennial growers are confronted with the same 

 problem that greenhouse growers confront in mid-winter. 



We are dealing with excessive moisture at just enough temperature 

 to allow the organism to germinate. Infection can take place at tem- 

 peratures as low as 50F. In conjunction with low-light conditions, the 

 plants never seem to dry out. Not only foliage — but soil surface mois- 

 ture as well — can contribute to the problem. Wet soil can easily cause 

 botrytis to form at the base of the plant. It will appear in its more de- 

 veloped stage as a grey fuzzy mass known as mycelium. (If you've kept 

 strawberries too long in your refrigerator, you'll know what it looks 

 like.) Cuttings and seedlings are most vulnerable. 



If you have a problem, take a sample and put it in a plastic bag 

 along with a wet paper towel. Don't seal the bag. Leave it on a 

 counter where the temperature will be about 70F for three or four 

 days. The disease will grow on virtually any plant or fruit and, if the 

 spores are there, the classic symptoms will develop. 



Letting the soil and foliage dry out some will usually prevent the 

 problem. You can do this in two ways — one: you can increase air circu- 

 lation, preferably with outside air (outside air usually will have less 

 free moisture or relative humidity than the air of an enclosed growing 

 house in which you water; or two: you can install horizontal fans. 

 Ornalin will eradicate the disease and fungicides (eg: Fungo) with 

 thiophanate methyl will help prevent the disease from forming. 



)im Zablocki, Jerrilory Manager. The Scolls Qompanij. ^ioriheasl, can be reached at 

 603-224-5583. 



DECEMBER 1996 ♦lANUARV 1997 



