| Building your greenhouse can be a family | | | | |
| project, or you can get professional help to | | | | The addresses of various plant societies will |
| erect all or part of it. | | | | usually be found at the back of any magazine |
| | | | which sponsors round-robin groups. But the |
| A cement contractor built the foundation and | | | | most complete source of addresses of all |
| walk for ours, and we did the rest ourselves. | | | | kinds of plant and garden organizations is |
| | | | the "Directory of American Horticulture". |
| Your first profit-making greenhouse can cost | | | | |
| you as little as $200, or it can run into | | | | If you enjoy growing uncommon or exotic |
| hundreds and even thousands. | | | | plants-the so-called collectors' items-and |
| | | | yours is a small community where sales for |
| You can build with inexpensive second-hand | | | | these would be limited, you can solve your |
| materials from an old dismantled greenhouse, | | | | dilemma by carrying on a mail-order business. |
| buy all new material, build a plastic | | | | Doing business through the mail is not |
| greenhouse or construct your house with | | | | difficult. Later I will tell you about |
| completely or partially prefabricated | | | | shipping restrictions and packing and how to |
| sections. | | | | develop a customer list for this type of |
| | | | business. |
| What to Grow | | | | |
| | | | Without Heat |
| Your very first year of under-glass gardening | | | | |
| (a term that now means under-plastic, too) | | | | Heat is not essential for all kinds of |
| can show a profit, even if you are not an | | | | greenhouse gardening. Although gloxinias, for |
| expert gardener. Indeed, the plants that are | | | | instance, usually are grown in a well-heated |
| easiest to grow may be the very ones to click | | | | house, a Minneapolis man has found out how to |
| in your neighborhood. | | | | make a tidy profit from them without heat. In |
| | | | late February, he starts seedlings in his |
| Wax begonias, ivy, marigolds, philodendron, | | | | kitchen windows and in his basement under |
| petunias, coleus, and cacti can be real | | | | fluorescent lights. |
| profit-makers. Today every city has | | | | |
| supermarkets, dime stores, and roadside | | | | When the weather warms up in late April, he |
| markets, and these are all potential outlets | | | | moves the seedlings to an unheated pit |
| for such plants. In Minneapolis, some of the | | | | greenhouse. By August, when the local market |
| drugstores carry small plants, and there are | | | | is just right for selling gloxinias in |
| cafes where you can buy a pretty pink begonia | | | | flower, he has quantities-and florists clamor |
| as well as a blue-plate luncheon. | | | | for them. Actually he could sell many more if |
| | | | he wanted to expand his little project. And |
| Many new home owners know little about | | | | this is carried on in a greenhouse, without |
| gardening but welcome colorful plants if they | | | | heat, in Minnesota's cold north country. |
| don't cost very much, say 49 or 98 cents | | | | |
| each. These may or may not be profitable | | | | Another friend makes money from an unheated |
| enough for local florists, but suit to a T | | | | greenhouse by using it as a potting shed and |
| your kind of business. | | | | starter room for potted roses, daylilies, and |
| | | | iris. She also has a heated greenhouse-a |
| Mail Order & The Internet | | | | glassed-in extension of the south portion of |
| | | | the basement-which she uses for starting |
| Your choice of profit-making plants may be | | | | seeds of tender plants. |
| dictated somewhat by your indoor gardening | | | | |
| experience and the time you have spent as a | | | | She has found that this is also the perfect |
| hobby gardener or collector. As you gain | | | | place for a few potted orchid plants whose |
| experience your horizons will widen. | | | | blooms are always in demand. |
| | | | |
| Many amateurs have learned through round | | | | There are lots of types of greenhouse to |
| robins (correspondence groups) what collector | | | | choose from. There is the low-cost (often |
| friends through the country are buying-or | | | | heatless) pit greenhouse; the lean-to; the |
| trying to buy. If you plan to go into the | | | | attached-to-the-dwelling greenhouse; and the |
| mail-order business, it would be a good idea | | | | free-standing greenhouse which often has a |
| to join one or more of these groups. | | | | handsome exterior. |
| | | | |
| They will give you some good leads. Some | | | | The outside design, however, no matter how |
| garden magazines and many of the plant | | | | beautifully executed, is of minor |
| societies sponsor round robins. Membership in | | | | significance when it comes to profits. In |
| plant society round robins is free with | | | | greenhouse growing, it's the interior that |
| membership. | | | | counts. |