New packing facilities relieved 
the bottleneck of last fall. Shipping 
operations were moved into the new 
shed before completion in order to 
handle the large increase of orders. 
We have worked over 20 people in 
the new shed without crowding. 
Cuttings are stripped by removing 
a leaf at a time; cuttings are never 
permitted to be drawn through the 
hand. Cuttinas are inspected by «he 
strippers, counter, and packer. The 
customer gets top-quality stock. 
Orders cut from the fields or tak- 
en from the sand are always ship- 
ped the same day, often within the 
hour. All orders are checked by Mrs. 
Bode Sr., and all the girls in the 
picture h~ve had up to seven years 
experience and are well acquainted 
with the preferences of our cus- 
tomers. 
Cuttings in the sand are treated 
with systemic poison to avoid aphids 
and spidermite. Nutrient levels with- 
in the cuttings are checked, and 
the cuttings fed when necessary. 
Most of our cuttings are put in 
the sand on order. Orders placed 
in advance of the delivery date are 
put in for you as a special batch. 
We also make every effort to main- 
tain a complete inventory of rooted 
cuttings in their respective ratios. 
We are the only California Field 
Growers maintaining such large in- 
ventories. This is a great aid to our 
customers who for many reasons 
find themselves in need of stock 
and do not wish to wait six weeks. 
The two beds of cuttings shown 
contain 80.000. These are the over- 
flow beds that are used when every- 
thing else is full. We have 37 such 
beds and benches. On the right are 
two of many benches. These are en- 
closed for bottom heating. In the 
path between the benches stands a 
field hecter, and many more can 
be seen throushout the field in the 
backaround. £00 heaters insure us 
egainst “unusual” frosts. 
BODE'S 
HY-GRADE 
PROPAGATING 
STOCK 
Our stock of strong close-jointed 
heavy-calipered, and evenly graded 
tip-cuttings has become during the 
years the “standard of quality” for 
Southern California Geraniums. This 
stock gives a fast growing, early 
flowering plant which will supply 3 
short tip-cutting almost immediate- 
ly. Cur stock should not be con- 
fused with miniature tips offered 
to the trade at slightly cut-rate 
prices. 
Cuttings prepared for rooting are 
carefully stripped, disbudded, and 
the ends are cleanly cut. They are 
powdered with Cutstart containing 
15% Parzate, which in itself aids 
rooting, and then are planted in 
washed sand. The sand is changed 
for every batch to avoid the pos- 
sibility of contamination. 
