C2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 14,1981
Time to
seeds
BY SALLY BAIR
Staff Correspondent
Now is the tune when serious
gardeners are busy studying their
seed catalogues selecting which
delicious vegetables will grace
tables next summer. It is also the
tune for writing our orders and
sending them to their favorite
distributors.
In Lancaster County, P L
Rohrer & Bro , Inc. has long been
symbolic of the very finest in
seeds, and at this tune of the year,
their garden seed operation is in
full swing.
Seven people are now employed
in the garden department,
weighing, packaging and
displaying the seeds on the shelves
in the store. An innovation this
year will be self-service in an
extensively re-designed retail
store. Garden seed Manager
Clarence Rohrer says he hopes the
new concept will meet with
customer approval.
In 1980 Rohrer sold over 80,000
pounds of garden seeds, and
Rohrer says, “We are the biggest
seed house locally. No one else
buys the volume of seed from the
suppliers that we do. ”
Garden seed sales have in
creased dramatically in the last
few years,, after having dropped
“way back,” according to Rohrer.
He says, “It’s an economy thing
Last year they referred to them as
‘survival gardens.’ ” He said the
only year that surpassed last year
in volume was during World War II
when victory gardens were
popular.
Mail orders, which account for 20
percent of the total volume of
business, are just beginning to
come m. When 200 are ac
cumulated they will begin mailing
the seeds as far away as the
Midwest, Idaho and California.
Most of the mail orders are repeat
customers. Rohrer says, “When I
go over the orders the names are
Gary Bender demonstrates a machine which assists in the
packaging of the large volume of seeds.
get those
ordered
so familiar.” He added that mail
orders increased for the first time
last year after “hanging dropping”
previously
Direct sales to about 125 dealers
account for an additional 45 per
cent of Rohrer’s seed business and
the remainder of the seeds are sold
from the familiar Smoketown
store
The largest volume of business
in the seed department comes in
March Rohrer says, “We give
advice all day long. We have
capable clerks who can answer all
the questions ” After the rush, the
department will go back to having
just two fulltime employees.
A large part of their wholsale
seeds come from Ferry Morse m
California which supplies the
“fine” seeds, and from Roger
Brothers in Idaho, which supplies
peas, beans and com. A salesman
from Ferry Morse recently told
Rohrer that P.L. Rohrer has been
buying from them for over 50
years.
As the man in charge of ordering
seeds to sell, Rohrer must be
something of a clairvoyant to
determine just which kind and how
many seeds he will need. Contract
orders for 1982 seeds will be signed
by the end of April. Rohrer makes
light of any special predicting
ability on his part saying, “I just
check my records and my in
ventory lists to determine what I
need. It’s really a guessing game
for the growers who must translate"
orders into the number of acres
they need to plant.”
There are many favorites which
are big sellers year after year. The
biggest seller m the business is
sweet com, and Silver Queen is the
undisputed leader in sweet corn.
White com has always been
popular m this county, and Rohrer
recalls when farmers were ac
cused of selling early field com if
they tried to sell yellow corn at
market. He even recalls signs
■miv't> T ’»># >*>
P.L. Rohrer’s new store at Smoketown will
offer the convenience of self-service for this
*Komest?ad
prohibiting the sale of yellow com.
Hybrids changed that attitude to
the extent that Rohrer says, “We
sold mostly yellow com for years ”
Now he declares that Silver Queen
is the unchallenged leader, adding,
“I hardly sell any Evergreen
anymore ’’
In green beans the leader is
Tendergreen, with other stringless
types selling well.
Another leading seller for
Rohrer is sugar peas. Rohrer said,
“For years sugar peas were a local
thing. They could be found only in
Lancaster and Berks County. Now
you can go into the finest
restaurant anywhere and eat them
but you don’t ask for sugar peas,
you ask for snow peas. I presume
the Pennsylvania Dutch Reformed
brought the seed with them from
Dealer sales represent 45 percent of the total of Rohrer’s
business, and here Don Cheuvront writes tags which will
d‘ ict idstothi deal'
--J®- ohrer fills an order in the
redesigned retail store which now offers customers self
service.
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the old country ” Rohrer’s now sell
about 4,000 pounds of sugar peas.
A newcomer in the field is the
sugar snap pea, available only Tor
the past two years. It has quickly
become a favorite because of its
versatility. “People like it because
they can eat it mature or im
mature. There are so many recipes
for sugar snap peas,” Rohrer says.
Will they overtake the market
for sugar peas? “Not as long as
they grow six to eight feet tall,”
Rohrer replies. "If growers can
get them to 30 inches then it may
change.”
-Rohrer compares the sugar snap
pea to a hull pea, although growers
like to call them a totally new
vegetable, Rohrer says they are
like the "sickle pea” he remem
bers from his youth.
imm
year’s customers.
For sugar snap pea fans,
however, this year will be a slim
one. Rohrer states, “There was
almost a total crop failure. They
were ready to harvest them in
Idaho and they had two weeks of
ram followed by sleet and up to six
inches of snow.”
Other tastes of his customers
have changed through the years.
Rohrer notes that more greens are
being sold now, and items like
mustard greens, collards and okra
have been added in just the last
few years.
Herbs are also getting to be
popular tune in his business. “Last
year was the first year I earned
herbs,” Rohrer says.
Of course, there are always new
products to be selected, Ronrer
said he relies upon his seed sup
pliers, periodicals and the All-
American Selection Committee for
recommendations about new
items. Usually he limits new seeds
to no more than two or three per
year.
Rohrer has seen many changes
since he began with the business at
age 19 in 1935. “Hybrids came out
for vegetables of all kinds. This
made the biggest difference. It
offers better yield, better quality
and more disease resistance.”
Some vegetables like peas and
beans cannot be hybridized.
Hybrids also cost more.
Customers come largely from
rural and suburban areas, and
Rohrer says with a smile that he is
now serving people whose fathers
he sold seeds to many years ago
P.L Rohrer, Clarence’s father,
started the seed business in 1914,
after purchasing it fiom Click’s
nursery where he had worked for
several years Two years later his
brother J L joined him, forming
the partnership P L. Rohrer and
Brother The operation was run
strictly as a seed house for years
and years, according to Rohrer
It is presently owned by a cor
poration composed of descendants
of PL Rohrer. Clarence is
secretary of the corporation. From
the seed business it has expanded
to bulk spreading, seed cleaning,
and the retail store has now ex
panded from seeds and chemicals
to a fairly complete line of garden
supplies
Rohrer says, It’s a one slop
thing They can get all the items
they need at one time ” The ex
panded line includes such things as
flower pots and tree wraps.
Rohrer recalls when it was
convenient for farmers to come for
their farm seeds and bring their
wife’s garden seed order along
Another change over the years is
that almost all of Rohrer’s needs
are trucked to their Smoketown
location Rohrer remembers when
he and his brothers would go to
Bird-m-Hand and open up freight
cars ‘We used to unload four or
five trainloads a week.” he states
There were also occasional trips to
the Philadelphia docks to unload
rye grass seed. But trams went
out, he said, when trucking
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