Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

Page 9 text:

many of our prettiest summer flowers. In addition to the greenhouses, the School is equipped with a number of cold frames. These are used extensively in preparing fo:‘ outdoor planting, and several of the frames are used as permanent beds for violets. The Greenhouses in Summer Possibly you think this is their resting season. But no indeed! They are useful the year around. There are many plants which require shading and special care during their early life and this can be done to best advantage in the greenhouse. There are also many plants which thrive best by being kept in the greenhouse all the year round, where it is possible to keep! them at an even temperature and give them a constant supply of moisture. Preparing for Winter It :s customary to fumigate the houses thoroughly before the winter planting begins. This rids the houses of pests and disease germs. Also, there is a regular housecleaning and repainting—all for the purpose of disease prevention as well as for appearance. The soil is removed and fresh, well composed soil put in. Sowing, potting, repotting, and transplanting re-commence in earnest. The greenhouses are a wonderful educational feature. Aside from the fact that they shelter and encourage our plants, they serve as a constant lesson in concentration, and we find that it is remarkable what Can be accomplished in a small space. Moreover, they are intermingled with all our other horticultural work. They aid us materially in our studies of Botany and Entomology, and the potting shed serves as a laboratory for our experiments in the study of Chemistry and Soils. A Final Glimpse Our small vegetable gardens are planted with vigorously growing tomatoes and cauliflower. A row of sweet peas has been started in front of each plot. The geraniums have been pruned and are a blaze of color and the fig tree is fruiting. The intermediate house is promising a glory of color and sweet scent later in the season. There is a row of Japanese chrysanthemums just bursting into bloom in the smaller cool house, and the asparagus ferns are flourishing. We have no need to look forward to a rather dull winter of constant book study. We have our greenhouses. Truly, they are ours, for we do practically all the work in them, under constant expert guidance. We have truly discovered that greenhouses are profitable. To body, mind, ahd soul their benefits are far-reaching, and, when carefully and intelligently managed, they may be profitable to the purse as well.

Page 8 text:

that of our summer time. Here we grow the antirrhinums, the primula.-,, the calendulas, the freesias, the stock, the begonias, the lupins, the petunias, and many other beauties which thrive and bloom all through the winter. In the very early spring this house is still further brightened by the narcissus, the tulips, and the hyacinths of Easter time. Here also is the home of a very thrifty oleander. The propagating house, as its name implies, is where our seeds germinate and our little cuttings take root. For this latter purpose there is a row of propagating benches, filled with sand and supplied with bottom heat. Here also we grow our finest tomatoes. On a trellis over one of the doorways leading into this house is a very lovely allamanda, whose golden trumpet flowers burst forth every now and then, firmly believing that they are in their native home in the tropics. The fernery, in addition to containing ferns and palms, and some enormous rubber plants, is also the home of our lilies, our winter roses, and a number of thrifty and fragrant heliotropes. Here also we force larkspur, columbine, foxgloves, iris, and other perennials with remarkable success. On one side is a fern wall where we have planted maidenhair ferns, lobelia, and various other delicate hanging plants. When it becomes a mass of green, and the tiny blue lobelia flowers peep out here and there, it is a very pretty sight indeed. Happy Winter Days Now for the potting shed on a working day; a cold snowy winter day when, mingled with our happy, busy chatter, there is a sense of awe that we should be gardening when all the outside world is cold and dormant. On one side of the potting shed is a long, wide bench with box-like openings below containing various kinds of soil—loam, sand, leaf mold, etc. Each student has a locker with all necessary implements. It is here that we sow the seeds in flats, prick then , out later into second flats, then to thumb pots, and later into larger and larger pots till the plant has reached blooming and maturity. Of course, this is not all. There are many other tasks for our happy winter days. The little plants must be fed to encourage the'r rapid growth and timely blooming. Every day we must give water wherever it is needed, and the plants are cultivated constantly to conserve the moisture, aireate the soil, and keep down the weeds and disease. Greenhouse pests, the aphis, the red spider, the mealy bug, etc., must be watched for and immediately discouraged with sprays. And so the days'fly by and before we are aware of it we are Getting Ready for Outdoor Planting Here we come to another feature of the usefulness of the greenhouse. A number of our cool season vegetables, such as head lettuce, early cabbage, and early cauliflower, could not be brought to maturity before the excessive heat of summer if it were not for the fact that the seeds are started under glass so that the little plants are ready to set out as soon as the frost is out of the ground. Also, some of our warm season vegetables: tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, sweet potatoes, etc., could not mature in our short season if they were not started in the greenhouse and transplanted. The Scime is true ol

Page 10 text:

THE COMMERCIAL GREENHOUSE By Helen N. Kille, ’23 and E. F. F. The work in an educational greenhouse is taken day by day; in a private greenhouse it is month by month; but in a commercial greenhouse it is a matter of year by year, or, more truly, life by life. In a school greenhouse the work is experimental for each student . It is a new field for her and .she is intent on learning as much as possible in her given time. All the old theories that have been tried many times before she must try for herself, and prove again. Every new theory that presents itself is a new adventure for her. She longs to try it out and reduce it to practical use, or to discard it as impractical. If she goes from school into a private greenhouse her outlook on the subject is only slightly changed. Here again the making of money is not the prime object. The school-inspired experiments can still be carried on—perhaps under more advantageous conditions. But go into the commercial world and you will find a very different situation. There the success of a crop means profit and bigger business, while a failure means another start and the same long-drawn-out task over again. It is a real job there, and requires the very best you have to give; from head, hands, and heart. You have your planning to handle first. In the florist’s business this must be done a long way ahead, for a greenhouse crop can’t be brought in at the last minute. It takes a full season to carry a chrysanthemum cutting to maturity and blooming, and it takes three years to get a blossoming plant from a genista cutting. Moreover, you must get your crops in on time. You don’t want your Easter lilies con ing into bloom in May, or your chrysanthemums just showing color in October. That means: know your plants, and calculate well before you do your planting. In business we naturally raise only money-making plants, and we strive for the best results from-the smallest outlay of money. We have to. When you sit down to do your planning decide carefully what you want, and then stick to it. You can waste more time and money and valuable brain energy in changing your mind than you can in any other way. Incidentally, you are wasting the time of someone else, and that never pays. Don’t forget that there is more than planning and growing to be :lone. The selling end is an important thing. You may be able to raise your crops successfully, but if you can’t sell them you might as well shut up the greenhouses and go to work in the nearest store. Crops must be marketed quickly and advantageously. That demands judgment and ingenuity in advertising, special sales, etc. You will be surprised how a clever advertising campaign will encourage a slack business. It is a pretty generally conceded fact that some people are born managers, and some are not. If you are going to succeed in the florist’s business you will have to develop to their fullest extent any