82-Linoetef Farming, Saturday, April is. 1989 looming Business For The Jolly Green Giant ■ BY JOYCE BUPP York Co. Correspondent YORK They’re already in the thick of the harvest season at Stambaugh’s Greenhouses. In fact, the first “pickings” from this crop were loaded for market before Easter. Flats filled with beautifully-blooming gera niums headed south to retail out lets, from this hillside greenhouse complex at 3905 Susquehanna Trail. York. That first shipment of the sea son barely made the proverbial dent in some 80,000 geranium plants grown annually by Leona and Ellsworth Gemmill for whole saling to retail garden centers. Ge raniums produced on this family farm operation add cheerful sum mertime color to thousands of gar dens in the mid-Atlantic area. Stambaugh’s Greenhouses opened for business during Easter season of 1945, though founder W.R. “Bill” Stambaugh had not originally intended to be in the potted plant business at all. Stambaugh acquired his first greenhouse for the purpose of dry ing gladioli bulbs. Then a brake man at the Pennsylvania Rail road’s Enola yards, he and his wife grew a few acres of glads for the cut flower market as a sideline. Problems with drying down the bulbs in the fall for winter storage set him searching for a greenhouse for that purpose. A glad-growing friend with a greenhouse was giv ing up his business; Stambaugh. made an offer that promptly made him new owner of the glass struc ture. After tearing it down, mov ing the components and rebuilding it at the farm north of York, Stam baugh figured the investment was going to have to generate more return than mere bulb drying space. With World War II winding down and a nation hungry for a more uplifting mood, he saw the potential demand for flowers. Though potted flowers were a bit scarce, he was able through a friend to locate a supply of season al blooming plants just in time for Easter. An “open” sign went up out Geranium cuttings are taken from the shoots of large “mother” stock plants, like this one held by Leona GemmllL . < .i < < <»< i«■ < t <*/<h i t i ,< .< front, customers liked what they found, returned, sent others, and the business was launched. That sign was the only advertising ever done by this unassuming, but highly successful, family opera tion. Now, 45 years later, Stam baugh’s daughter and son-in-law have just officially taken over reins of the greenhouse operation. And, on some occasions, four gen erations of this family work together to plant and harvest its beautiful crops. Daughter Virginia Baker works full time with the family, and 12-year-old‘ grand daughter Jamie occasionally lends a hand on days off from school. During the early years, Stam baugh grew and retailed a wide range of bedding annuals, garden vegetable plants, seasonal bulbs and holiday plants, even Christ mas trees. The first of many expansions of additional green houses came only two years after the “open” sign went up. “We didn’t know where we were going,” relates the affable Bill Stambaugh. “We just started and went the way things went” Wholesaling was eventually the way things went, as Stambaugh’s market sense recognized possibili ties in the surging building and economic boom bursting behind the lean war years. “There was an opportunity for someone to grow geraniums; there has always been more demand than supply for them,” he relates. And, it is primarily around ge raniums that the business was built and continues to thrive. Approximately ten varieties of assorted colors comprise the annu al crop, some of them long-time, proven performers, along with newer, promising types. Color trends are also considered, though red continues to be the first choice for many gardeners. Stambaugh’s Greenhouse’s grows no geraniums from seed, preferring the larger size, as well as the fuller and more rapid bloom of cutting-grown plants. Cutting geraniums are reportedly the sec ond high in volume of bedding plants sold nationwide, despite Three generations working together at Stambaugh’s Greenhouses Inclui left, Virginia Baker, Leona and Ellsworth Gemmlll, and Bill Stambaugh. y g grown at Stambaugh’s is “Aurora," a deep fuschla shade. predictions at one time that the seed types would replace the popularity of their cutting-grown cousins. According to Stambaugh, the blooms on seed-grown gera- niums shatter more quickly than those produced by cutting-grown plants. First cuttings are taken from the large mother plants in mid- October, and tucked into sterilized March from California. First soil in small pots, 35 to a flat. Flats planted to four-inch pots, then go onto a “hot rack, ” in the upper moved to the eight-inch size, those levels of the houses, with automa- become stock plants for the crop tic watering and bottom heat to of consumers* favorite Christmas encourage rooting and cut rotting plants. losses. After about three weeks, Initial poinsettia cuttings are the batch is moved to the waist- made about the same time the last high benches which stretch wall- geraniums go out, keeping the to-wall through the houses. 30,000 square feet of greenhouse Successive crops of cuttings space in year-round use. follow at regular intervals, while “It’s never ending; someone batches of the rooted geraniums has to be here all the time,” says get their final transplant into four- Leona of the rotation of these inch pots. Plants develop from popular plant crops, cuttings to full market size, com- On bright, sunny days, the plete with fluffy blooms, in five plants need daily watering. Plants months. The last cuttings, taken in are fed every 10 to 14 days. A early February, mature to wrap-up planned addition of automatic the season by Independence Day. watering equipment, with built-in Largest volumes of the gera- fertilization capabilities, will case niums go to wholesale customers the physical labor of watering by hand with hoses. Stambaugh’s was one of the M 4 first greenhouse operations in the a 499. area many years ago to convert mb' • wwM WfP from costly glass structures to the quonset-style, plastic-covered style house. They were still such ~ an innovative idea at that time that A A no building packages were on the WVvLvW (Turn to Pago B 4) xa* a,j* ’a .ait'a*J.,a - around the metropolitan areas of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. While housing expansion has cramped most other types of agri culture enterprises in the region, it has proven a boon for flower and garden plant growers. “The interest in plants is grow ing,’’ confirms a pleased Stam baugh, who still handles deliveries for the operation. “Look at all the housing developments; when one neighbor plants flowers, the other neighbors plant flowers, too. Peo ple have more money to spend on making their properties attractive. We’ve felt the dips in the eco nomy over the years, but we’ve always sold out.’’ Quality plays a large role in that, a sense of pride that is evi dent in the attitude of this friendly family. Quality takes precedence over quantity, and all three gener ations fret when uncontrollables, like last summer’s extreme heat, affects plants’ performance. “I enjoy so much getting these ready, especially when they’re nice,” smiles Leona Gemmill, as she fills an order from a bench thick with crisp green leaves and apple-blossom-pink blooms. The needs and market timing for two additional popular floral crops mesh well into die geranium culture schedule and conditions. Hanging baskets of fuschia, a favorite Mother’s Day gift, pro vide a harvest from the upper levels of the greenhouses. They thrive several feet above the long rows of benches, bringing eco nomic return in space where stocky geraniums never reach. Even the 2,500 hanging baskets of fiischias now filling out and pushing buds fall short of custom er demand for these lovely speci men plants. Cuttings taken from stock plants grow foil and bushy with two pinchings to encourage branching. Fuschias are sensitive to adverse soil moisture conditions and require frequent checks to guard against either over or under watering. Their location, some six feet or so overhead in the green houses, has led to Ellsworth Gem mill’s skill on stilts. > Endless climbing on and mov ing ladders to monitor the fuschias’ moisture proved burden some. So, some years ago, using the concept of plasterers’ stilts, Gemmill devised an experimental pair of high-rise footgear to raise him to eye level with the hanging baskets. Having conquered that skill, he now straps on a pair of commercial plasterers’ stilts to monitor and water the long rows of fuschias soaking up sun from their heady height. And, as the final cuttings of ge raniums and fuschias are just nice ly filling pots with healthy roots, the annual shipment of rooted poinsettia cuttings arrived in late •om
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