MEMBER PROFILE 



ways in stock, but that's in the future"); spring adds 

 garden and patio items — ivy geraniums, impatiens, 

 fuchsia... The additional height in the houses allows 

 hangers to be grown in two layers In April, there can 

 be as many as five layers of material — on side shelves 

 above the benches, on and below the benches, and 

 hangers. Air circulation is crucial, watering starts at the 

 top and works down, and material is shifted and 

 opened up whenever possible, but Bruce concedes it's 

 "a grower's nightmare." 



lumbo annuals (5000 7 1/2-inch pots — the material is 

 raised for this specific purpose! is the major summer 

 crop. 



The fall crop is mums Bruce grows 60,000 — 85 variet- 

 ies in four sizes — in a sand pit near the traffic circle 

 The entire process is done here He makes his own mix 

 (loam, peat, perlite, vermiculite, manure, mixed with a 

 front-end loader) and pots up rooted cuttings on a 

 flatbed trailer; pots are set on weed mat and watered — 

 half the crop at a time — with an overhead sprinkler sys- 

 tem. When the crop's ready, the vans drive in and load 

 up. 



Eight thousand poinsettias — double last year's pro- 

 duction and ranging in size from four-inch to ten — were 

 grown. Rooted cuttings arrived in August. Size is con- 

 trolled with cultural techniques (timing, pinching, nega- 

 tive DIF), without use of chemicals. 



January and February is the time for cooler crops — 

 cineraria, primroses, streptocarpus. Obconica — primrose- 

 like, but with many-flowered umbels — is a major Easter 

 crop. Cyclamen and azaleas are available from October 

 to May. 



Bruce continues to try new items: ranunculus in four- 

 inch pots, tetrastigma ("a huge grape ivy — a lot like 

 woodbine), variegated helichrysum in hanging baskets; 

 a yellow impatiens. ..but realizes the standard crops will 

 dominate. 



He caters to middle-sized establishments. A cus- 

 tomer can buy one item — or a truckload. "The need was 

 there," Bruce says. "No one else in the state was com- 

 bining regular delivery with a good assortment and 

 year-round availability." 



THERE ARE TWO OTHER ASPECTS— both retail. On 

 leased land at the Alton traffic circle are five plastic 

 houses totalling about 8000 square feet. Three houses 

 are used for growing year-round — azaleas, cyclamen, 

 poinsettias, but in spring, all the houses are filled with 

 bedding plants and on May first. Sunflower Gardens 

 opens as a retail bedding plant outlet. The place is 

 open 9-6 seven days a week until the tenth of )uly; 

 there's one full-time employee. "It's a great spring retail 

 business — and a place we can pull from for the whole- 

 sale side of things if necessary." 



After luly tenth. Sunflower Gardens becomes self- 

 serve, with instructions for the customers and a cash 

 box on the counter "It works slick — we check in a 

 couple times a day — we've had no problems. Even if 

 someone took some cash or plants, we'd still be out 

 ahead." 



WOODBURY GARDENS, clearly established on a hill 

 above the Woodbury Avenue malls and discount stores 

 in Portsmouth, is the newest part of the mix 



Orrin lohnson, operator of the garden center for the 

 last eighteen years, knew Bruce and Linda (they were 

 one of his suppliers) and asked if they'd be interested 

 in taking over the operation. 



An established business in a good location, an open- 

 ing into the lucrative Seacoast market — it seemed too 

 good to pass up They agreed on September ninth The 

 next day, Bruce and Linda filled the display area with 

 mums, Orrin put up an "Open " sign, and they were in 

 business on the eleventh. 



Linda is the manager, but Orrin's quieter presence in 

 crucial. There's a spacious retail shop and five green- 

 houses — a 30'x70' glass house attached to the shop, a 

 second glass house used for additional stock, and three 

 hoop houses that are filled with bedding plants in 

 spring No crops are produced here ("we are set up to 

 be a retail garden center") and Woodbury Gardens 

 could become a major outlet for Sunflower production 

 (the yellow impatiens, for example, will be offered ex- 

 clusively here) 



Woodbury Gardens has its own specialties and clien- 

 tele, but, with the malls and discount stores just down 

 the street, some of the more distinctive elements will 

 be developed. The glass house will become an environ- 

 ment — benching will be less obvious and floor plants 

 will create a garden around a central fountain. The flo- 

 rist shop will be expanded; more emphasis will be on 

 dried and silk arrangements. There will be unique gift 

 lines and collectibles. Linda sees the Seacoast's classi- 

 cally proportioned colonial residences and knows the 

 people living in them want a certain style — something 

 she calls "Classy Country" This is what she hopes to offer. 



Bruce has worked for many people in the horticul- 

 ture industry — as a grower at Spider Web, in-house 

 salesperson for Griffin, manager at the Greenery, sales 

 rep for Skidelsky. His attempt to start a greenhouse op- 

 eration in Wolfboro turned into a two-year lesson in 

 small town politics. 



Now all that experience is being put to use. And the 

 elements seem to be fitting nicely into place. (BP) 



Bruce and Linda Holmes, Sunflower Industries, PO Box 360, 

 Alton. NH 03809, can be reached at 603-875-4444. 



18 



THE PLANTSMAN 



