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MEMBER PROFILE 



Churchiirs 



A Good Business Even Better 



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fter leaving 

 Ohio State with 

 a degree in or- 

 namental horti- 

 culture, one of the companies at 

 which Jim Moser worked was 

 Chemlawn. Transferred to Manches- 

 ter, New Hampshire, in 1985, he left 

 in 1988 to form, with a partner, his 

 own lawn-care business, Granite 

 State Lawn Care. This turned out to 

 be very successful — so much so that 

 they were bought — by Chemlawn 

 Jim wanted another business and, 

 through a broker, began looking at 

 various possibilities. The broker 

 mentioned that Churchill's Garden 

 Center in Exeter was for sale. 



jim had originally wanted some- 

 thing less seasonal that would allow 

 him to spend more time with his 

 four children, but Churchill's 

 seemed attractive — "a good busi- 

 ness in an area of the state with 

 strong growth potential." 



Located on 3.6 acres of land on 

 the Hampton/Exeter Road, the gar- 

 den center was founded in 1939 by 

 Charlie Knibbs and bought in 1971 

 by Jim and )udy Churchill. By 1994, 

 it had grown to include a 40x60' re- 

 tail shop with two display green- 

 houses connected to one side and, 

 behind it, four double-poly produc- 

 tion houses (one 30'x96'; three 

 16'x96'). Polly's Flower Shoppe, in 

 its own building, was a separate 

 business renting space. 



Staff — three full-time year-round 

 employees (although with fewer 

 hours in winter) who knew the busi- 

 ness well — was already in place. 



And Jim and Judy Churchill agreed 

 to stay on — )im as grower; Judy in 

 the shop — to smooth the transition. 



This has allowed lim Moser, now 

 owner and manager, to learn the 

 growing end of things and Jeanne, 

 his wife, to become familiar with the 

 operation of the shop. 



IT ALL STARTS IN THE MOTHER 

 HOUSE— the 30'x96' poly— in mid- 

 lanuary, when the pansy and viola 

 plugs are potted up . 



The production houses are ba- 

 sic — oil-heated double-poly; dirt 

 floors; material is grown on wooden 

 pallets or snow fencing on cement 

 blocks or on weed control mats on 

 the floor |im buys in plugs. Some- 

 day he may grow from seed, but un- 

 til he's gotten a few seasons under 

 his belt, he'd rather have fewer 

 steps in which to make mistakes. 

 This year he bought 1000 trays of 

 pre-planted plugs ("1000 less to 

 transplant"). Techniques are simple 

 — there's a potting bench just in- 

 side the front door of the Mother 

 House; MetroMix 360 is the me- 

 dium; feeding is by dosatron; hang- 

 ers are on a chapin system, but 

 most everything else is watered by 

 hand. 



Hangers — fuchsia, ivies, Super- 

 tunias, impatiens. Proven Winners — 

 are a Churchill specialty. The first — 

 ivies — are hung in the cool house 

 (55F nights) above the first pansies 

 and, later, dianthus and snaps. Al- 

 though this was originally done sim- 

 ply to hold the earliest hangers — 

 potted perhaps a little too early in 



order to create time for other pot- 

 ting later in the season, it seems to 

 be beneficial in another way: while 

 there's not much vegetative growth 

 in the cooler temperature, there's a 

 lot of root development. When the 

 temperature warms up, the strong 

 root system supports an explosion 

 of lush foliage. 



Ivies are traditional — Churchill's 

 grows more Balkan types now — 

 these have a split bloom, as op- 

 posed to the more umbel-like 

 head; their leaves are more deeply 

 lobed Jim finds them more vigor- 

 ous and simpler to grow But all 

 ivies are popular and seem to 

 stand up well in full sun. 



Moser experiments with other 

 types of hangers — 14" moss bas- 

 kets; living wreaths (begonias, lobe- 

 lia, and ivy growing in moss at- 

 tached onto a Christmas wreath box 

 frame), and plastic pouches filled 

 with soil with a dozen plants grow- 

 ing through slits in the plastic. 

 Grown lying flat on the bench, once 

 the plants fill in, the pouch is hung 

 on a wall, creating a flat surface of 

 living material. 



But most are in 10" pots (8" 

 dries out more quickly); he sells all 

 he grows and pots up a second 

 crop for summer sales 



Annuals have always been a 

 strong item at Churchill's. Using 

 customers' comments as a guide, 

 Moser is trying some new types: 

 more "native" marigolds, ornamen- 

 tal poppies, annual larkspur (and in 

 six-paks of individual colors, as well 

 as mixed). 



IS 



THE PLANTSMAN 



