Bl2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 11,1984
Washington Boro couple raises flowers, says quality is key to success
BY SUZANNE KEENE
WASHINGTON BORO - When
Brian and Paula McCreight
became the parents of a son three
years ago, Paula was working full
time as a biologist at Muddy Run
Ecological Laboratories. For a
while, she took their new son,
Owen, along to work, making a bed
for him in the laboratory. But, as
he got older and more active, it
was no longer feasible to take him
along, and Paula decided she did
not like the idea of leaving him
behind.
“I didn’t really like the idea of
going to work without him,” she
said.
Dissatisfied with her em
ployment situation, Paula said her
interest was aroused when a friend
who was working as a florist
suggested that she might be able to
raise flowers on a commercial
basis and market them to local
florists. Paula and Brian were
already living on a farm, raising a
few steers and crops in addition to
holding down their full-time jobs.
Paula and the florist went
through the seed catalogues,
selecting those flowers they
thought would hold well as cut
flowers and which the florists
would be able to use. Paula also did
for the McCreights, bundle liatris to fill a wholesale order.
Others will be hung in the barn to dry.
ley sai
flowers.
some research on which flowers
would grow well in Pennsylvania.
Last year, they planted three
acres of their farm in a variety of
flowers. Through trial and error,
they have found that some types
work better as cut flowers than
others. Sometimes, Paula said, the
catalogue is right when it says a
flower keeps well, and sometimes
it isn’t.
Paula and Brian said they start
some of their seeds in a local
greenhouse and transplant them to
bigger flats as they grow.
However, most of them they start
in seed beds, which are prepared
like tobacco beds, Paula ex
plained. Later, the plants are
transplanted into the regular beds
using a tobacco planter.
Despite the drought that plagued
Lancaster County last summer,
the McCreights were successful in
their new business. Paula said the
florists were surprised at the
quantity of quality flowers they
produced without an irrigation
system.
Looking back, Brian and Paula
say they consider themselves
lucky to have done so well. They
attribute their success to the good
soil and water on their farm.
Brian adds: “A dry year will
larvesting and weeding are the most time consuming part of raising si* acres of flowers. Currently, they have about 4,000 statice
plants.
jan , jCreight takes down a lath of flowers that have been hanging in the barn to
dry. Brian said they sell most of their dried flowers in the winter.
soon as they are picked. Before Creights an advantage over
storing the flowers in their walk-in foreign growers who have to ship
refrigerator, they let them stand in their flowers dry packed. “That’s
the water for two full hours, one of the main reasons we have
allowing them to “drink.” Then, been able to do what we’ve done,”
still in water, they are stored in the Paula says,
cooler. To maintain the quality of flower
Offering flowers that have not that they market, Brian and Paula
been out of water gives the Me- (Turn to Page B 13)
scare you to death, but a wet year
will kill you.”
At the end of last year’s season,
the McCreights added a pond to
their land and installed a drip
irrigation system. However, this
season has been so wet that they
haven’t had to use it much.
Last year, Paula sold the
flowers, fresh from the fields, to
florists in the Lancaster area.
Transporting them in a small
station wagon, she said she
sometimes had to make several
trips into the city before she sold
them all.
To show the florists that she was
really serious about the business,
she ordered catalogues showing
which varieties of flowers she had
to offer. With fresh flowers and
catalogues in hand, she entered
local flower shops, introducing
herself as a new grower and
showing her wares.
“Some people were ap
prehensive, but overall they were
willing to try,” she remarked.
Paula notes that in the flower
business, they are competing in a
world market, with many of the
flowers used in the United States
coming from Holland and South
America. But because they can
offer a fresh, top-quality product,
the McCreights have been able to
hold their own against the com
petition.
Having a much shorter distance
to transport their product, the
McCreights are able to offer
fresher flowers than florists can
get from other countries. To keep
their flowers at their best, Brian
and Paula put them in water as
'D
Brian moves buckets of flowers from his refrigerated truck
onto the wholesaler’s truck. By keeping the flowers in water
from the time they are picked, the McCreights are able to
offer top quality cut flowers.