,?6 Lancaster Farming, Saturday. April 1973 t * y Mrs. Edna Wissler. . . Mrs. Charles (Edna) Wissler of Rawlinsville is the “perfect” gardner. Just to pass her house when her azaleas and rhododendrons are blooming is worthwhile. In fact, passers-by sometimes stop and ask to take colored pictures of them. Yes, her lawn has a succession of blooms from early spring till late fall. Mrs. Wissler has her own garden tractor and tends to her vegetable garden herself. Sometimes her husband plows it but mostly she works up the ground. In it she grows onions, lettuce, radishes, cabbage, beets, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, string beans, lima beans, sweet corn, sweet potatoes and cantaloupes They not only have a lot of cantaloupes to eat in season but she spices a lot of them. She starts many of the vegetable and flower plants from seed in a home-fashioned hothouse. As far as the sweet potatoes go, this is a business in itself for her 4/ Mrs. Wissier and “Ginger", her riding horse, take in many trail rides. Edna Wissler, in front of the china closet she refinished, is holding her favorite piece of cut glass which must weigh about 12 pounds. Flower Garden Is A Riot Of Colors Her Feature y 4Bk Writer Mrs. Charles McSparran She sells about 12,000 sweet potato plants a year. They will be ready starting about May 15. People come from far and near to get them. Mrs. Wissler says “People love the way they keep and they like the taste of them.” She bought this strain, which she can’t name, from a lady eight or nine years ago and has stuck with them. They are light yellow in color. She tried seven or eight other varieties, which came from New York state, a few years ago but she thinks these are tops. One man from New Jersey has already ordered 1000 plants. Mrs. Wissler says of the sweet potatoes “This is my project.” She plants about four-and-a-half bushels of sweet potatoes in a hotbed to grow her plants. She keeps them over winter in baskets in her basement. Her husband helps make up the rows and she and her mother dig the potatoes. She sells about 15 bushels of sweet potatoes in the fall. She also freezes some to save time in meal preparation. Mrs. Wissier and her mother have a strawberry project. They raise “Jerseybelle” berries. They usually sell about 200 quarts unless they have unfavorable weather like last year. Mrs. Wissier - raises black raspberries and a few blueberries for their own use. She has rhubarb, grapes and a number of fruit trees which she prunes and sprays herself. Farm Mrs. Wissler displays some figurine one with red roses is the design she is ceramic pieces and holds two plates she using to make a set of dishes. The large egg made. The one is antique design and the is electrified and holds ceramic eggs. Among them are four peach, three apricot, one Bartlett pear, one Bing cherry and two sour cherry trees. She has the fruit for her own use and gives the surplus to her son and to her cousin. She makes strawberry jam, rasp berry jelly and peach jam Mrs. Wissler has many hobbies but the one which takes most of her time in summer is her flowers. She has many peren nials-at least eight kind? of azaleas, eight colors of azalea mollis, 50 or more roses (she did have about 100 but they often freeze over winter so she is cutting down on them), five or six kinds of peonies, dwarf iris and a few other kinds of iris, two kinds of spirea, weigelea, seven kinds Mrs. Wissler shows some of the dresses she has made recently. Her mural wallpaper adds much to her living room. V t '*• 7 Mrs. Charles Wissler, Holtwood RD2, fashioned this hothouse to start her vegetable and flower plants. •• t ■> I of rhododendron, an American holly tree, a Stevens holly tree, a white wisteria tree, three pink dogwood trees, several mimosa trees, two pink shades of creeping phlox, andromeda, lupins, delphinium, columbines, painted daisies, oriental poppies, portulacas, galardia, five kinds of clematis, a flowering almond, dianthus, wall flower, ferns, mums, plumbago, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, grape hyacinths and crocuses. Her annuals include scarlet sage, geraniums, petunias, three kinds of marigolds, wax begonias, zinnias, snapdragons, salvia and terania. She used to have many house plants but now limits them to one Strelitzia Reginae or Bird Of Paradise and a fascinating dd man cactus. (Continued On Page 27)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers