Plant Markers
Great Plants For All Year Round Greenhouse Profits
Here are some great plants you can grow in your greenhouse for all year round profits
Annual Phlox
The lovely little annual phlox in a vast selection of colors will almost always be among your best sellers. They are useful anywhere. Suggest to your customers that these plants are most effective in the garden when planted in groups of half dozen or more.
Sow the seed in early March in light soil. Grow in the cool greenhouse and pot up in 2 or 3-inch pots in mid-April.
Bachelor Button (Centaurea)
This plant with its silvery-gray foliage, bright blue, pink, or pink and white flowers is a great garden favorite. Recommend it for beds, borders, cutting rows, or accent plants.
Sow the seeds in February, planting them ½ inch deep in ordinary greenhouse soil or any seed-starter medium and grow them in the cool greenhouse. These seedlings will be large enough to be sold from 3- or 4-inch pots in May.
Balsam (Impatiens balsamina)
Balsams are old favorites-and they are constantly being improved as in the new rose-, camellia- or double-flowered types.
Sow balsam seed in March in pans or flats of sandy soil. The seed germinates rapidly when grown in 65 degree temperatures. Pot into 3-inch pots when the first true leaf shows, usually about 3 weeks after germination. They need lots of light, so grow them close to the glass. To obtain shapely plants remove the first buds from the main stem and side shoots.
Calendula
Calendulas, or pot marigolds, with their bright golden heads, are fine for garden color or for the cutting garden. They thrive in most any soil, and seeds sown in early April will produce large budded plants for late May or early June sales. Grow the seedlings in night temperature of 50 degrees.
Calendulas come in shades of cream, apricot, yellow, and orange. Grown under good conditions, modern calendulas are mostly doubles-regular pompoms. If many single or deformed blooms show up on supposedly doubled varieties, they probably have been grown under too high a temperature.
Castor Bean (Ricinus communis)
Owners of new homes-especially in housing developments -usually have common garden problems. Foremost among these is lack of shade and the immediate need for impressive-looking shrubbery or plants. The castor bean will fill both of these bills. These plants in one season will grow 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide, with very broad leaves. Suggest using castor bean plants also as patio plantings, boundary line markers, or to add a touch of interest to the new garden.
The beans are large. Plant each one in a separate 2-inch pot in March and grow in the cool greenhouse. In mid-May pot up in 4- or 5-inch pots.
Coreopsis
Coreopsis thrive in a sunny location. With their yellow, orange, red, and near-brown flowers, they add splashy color to the garden and are long-lasting cut flowers.
Start seed in the cool greenhouse in mid-April and you’ll have salable plants from 3-inch pots in late May.
Cosmos
With lacy foliage and richly colored flowers cosmos make popular additions to most gardens. Most of them are about 3 feet high at maturity but some of the “Mammoth” hybrids grow to 5 feet. They thrive under the same conditions as coreopsis. Cosmos come in deep rose, rich crimson, white, pink, and orange, with single and double flowers.
Dahlia
Planted early in February, most dahlias will produce flowers from seed the first season. Certain varieties such as Unwins have become favorites for pot growing. You can purchase these in mixture and plant them in early February in the cool house for salable potted plants in May.
Gilia
The gilia genus offers several good garden species. I like Gilia rubra (sometimes sold as Ipomopsis); it features rapid growth and tall (3-5 feet) spires of bright red flowers. These make wonderful accent plants to place among low-growing perennials, as iris or hemerocallis, and they are among the most handsome of background plants. Although easily grown, this gilia is not too often seen. Its common names include standing cypress and Texas plume. There are also varieties with blue, pincushion-like flowers.
To have flowering plants in May, sow the seed in December in a cool greenhouse. As soon as the little plants are large enough to handle, usually in about a month, transplant directly into 2-inch pots of average greenhouse loam. Plants will flower right in these 2-inch pots, but you’ll have larger plants and more flowers if you give one more transplanting-to a 3- or 4-inch pot.
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My hibiscus leaves have on black spot at base of leaf (underside) what is it? Is it something to be concerned?
On some leaves of my tropical hibiscus plant, on the underside, right above where the leaf meets the stem, there is a small black dot about the size of the tip of a marker. Not all leaves have this. Should I be concerned? Are there actions to be taken? The plant is 14 weeks old (says on the pot), no blooms or buds yet.
I looked up “black spot” and it doesn’t look like that. There are no other black spots on the leaves.
My boyfriend gave me the plant yesterday. I am very new to gardening and don’t even know what to do with a plant when I first buy one.
I live in zone 9a. No worry about cold here anymore.
I don’t know where you live, but hibiscus do not like the cold, if it drops leaves, that will not mean it’s dying, new leaves will come out again when it’s warm enough. Is a very young plant and has not put down long enough roots yet. If you expect another cold snap below 50F I would wrap it with newspaper to protect the plant. When you buy a new plant take it out of the pot carefully and inspect the roots, making sure it is not infected with bugs, then repot it in your own mix if you intend to keep all of your plants in pots. With the same soil, you can water them all the same. If it is a plant that must be kept dryer than the rest use a smaller pot because it will dry out faster. Or you can can some pumice or perlite into the soil for better drainage. Don’t use peat moss in any soil mix, it attracts sciaria flies (a small fly which places its eggs in moist humic composts where the developing larvae feed from decaying organic matter) and thus larve which can hollow out the whole body of a succulent plant. They love peat moss. Norma
Tutorial – Plant Markers from Old Plastic Blinds – for Tomato, Vegetable & Home Gardens – SB16889