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