cessful Transition Takes Place 



really good white — and a yellow, but up to now, 

 none of the bulbs have met their standards. So, again 

 this winter, their home will be full of flowers. 

 The process begins around the first week in 

 August, when seven yards of loam arrives and Dale 

 mixes it with pro-mix (two parts pro-mix, one part 

 loam), then steams the complete mix. He has an old 

 Dillon steamer ("it never breaks down") and does 

 two loads a day every day for the next couple 

 months. 



Four part-time workers are hired in October when 

 the potting begins. (They work through March.) Eve- 

 ryone pots, but it's not assembly-line style — one 

 person does a whole unit. There is an initial watering 

 and spot watering after that. 



But along with the potting, another aspect be- 

 gins — the marketing side of things. "Advertising is 

 key," Dale says. "You've got to have proper adver- 

 tising." 



This year, 7500 brochures will be mailed in 

 October. The brochures are simple — "country" — 

 with pen-and-ink drawings of the various pans of 

 bulbs. They conform to outsiders' ideas of how 

 quaint things are up here in New Hampshire and the 

 response to them is very favorable. 



But their major advertising is done in magazines. 

 And it is crucial to choose the right ones — "With ads 

 in the wrong places, you could lose your shirt." It's 

 difficult to define the type of magazine in which their 

 ads draw a sufficiently favorable response, but 

 through trial and error, they've found a few which 

 seem to work well. Each year they try ads in new 

 publications and slowly, they are expanding the 

 framework for their advertising. 



Diane is in charge of the office; Dale is in 

 charge of the packing. In the 



packing process, the pan is 

 put into a box, florist 

 grass is tucked around 

 the tender shoots, and 

 styrofoam peanuts are 

 put around the entire 

 unit. 



Tlie address labels 

 have already been 

 printed out by the 

 office computer; in the 

 packing room, as another 

 computer weighs the 



unit, Dale punches in the zip code, and a label with 

 the correct postage on it is spit out. The packages are 

 shipped through UPS and on a busy day, two 

 hundred units go out. 



Diane and Dale see the growth of the business 

 tied to increased use of technology — the next step is 



'Sitting with them 



on their porch in 



perfect August 



weather... I felt 



these people had 



already reached 



an early plateau of 



success' 



to upgrade the computer systems in general. 



Winters were their busy time; on summer days, 

 they could linger and talk, their business was port- 

 able; technology would allow it to grow. Sitting with 

 them on their porch in perfect August weather, with 

 story-book clouds billowing above the green hills, I 

 felt these people had already reached an early plateau 

 of success. 



Dale sensed what I was thinking. "It's not as easy 

 as it looks on a day like this," he said. "It's a tricky 

 business. In the greenhouse, things were more stable. 

 If you worked hard, you'd have some success. But 

 this is different — if you're not on top of things 

 100%, you could go beUy-up. There are so many 

 factors — gauging the mood of the public, getting the 

 right ads in the right places. ..there could be a UPS 

 strike... there are so many factors..." 



I understood what he was saying, but as I thought 

 about what I'd seen. Dale and Diane's choices 

 seemed wise ones and worries aobut the future 

 prosperity of Mariborough Greenhouses didn't enter 

 my mind at all. (B.P.) 



For further information: Dale and Diane La- 

 Casse, Marlborough Greenhouses, Inc., P.O. Box 

 32, Marlborough, NH 03455; telephone: (603) 876- 

 4397. 



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