All Types Of Flowers Garden

Backyard berries are summer's sweetest treats

Backyard berries are the gardening world's newest sweethearts. Their sugary appeal stems not just from their luscious flavors but also because they're surprisingly simple to grow; not to mention that picking fresh from your own backyard is going to cut into those budget-breaking grocery bills like never before. Let's face it, fresh fruit is expensive but, thankfully, putting homegrown berries in your gardening palette couldn't be easier.

Pennsylvania gardeners are fortunate. Many small fruits, including strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, can be grown successfully here. With a little attention to the soil, proper variety selection and some minor maintenance, these fruits fit into our landscapes. Here's some advice on how to get started on a backyard berry patch of your own.

Strawberries

Strawberries are probably the easiest of the small fruits to grow. Choose a location with a minimum of six hours of full sun and work a few shovels of compost into the planting area before spacing the plants about 8 inches apart.

Strawberry varieties fit into two categories: June-bearing or ever-bearing (also called day-neutral). The former produces berries that all ripen within a period of a few weeks in, you guessed it, June. These varieties are great for jelly- and jam-makers because they're all ripe at once. Favorite varieties include "Benton," "Shuksan," "Surecrop" and "Allstar."

Ever-bearing types spread a more moderate harvest throughout the gardening season, beginning in June and continuing through late September. These selections (including "TriStar," "Seascape" and "Albion") are perfect for families looking to have a handful of berries everyday.

When planting strawberries, pinch off the flowers for the first season to encourage good root growth, and plan to renew your patch by digging out the old plants and replacing them with new ones every four or five years. A light winter mulch of an inch or two of straw will help see them through the winter, but is not absolutely necessary.

Blueberries

Blueberries fill several niches in the garden. They produce tasty berries, and are beautiful landscape shrubs with lovely white flowers and gorgeous fall coloration. Consider using them in foundation plantings next time you're mourning the loss of a rhododendron or azalea.

Blueberries are extremely hardy -- some varieties survive down to -35 degrees -- and thrive in acidic soils with a pH range of 4.0 to 5.0 and full to partial sun. Test your soil's pH level before planting and use either elemental sulfur or a commercial fertilizer formulated for evergreens each season to maintain the ideal pH.

3 Profitable Niches for a Flower Growing Business

Flower production is one of the fastest growing crop trends in agriculture today, with strong demand for all types of flowers, especially unique or hard-to-grow varieties. According to a U. S. D. A. Horticulturist, a good flower grower can produce and sell over $100,000 worth of plants in one season with a $15,000 greenhouse.

The strongest demand is for a “instant color” flowers grown in four-inch pots ready to transplant to the garden as finished blooming plants. This includes annuals, such as the marigolds, Petunias, Salvia and zinnias. Begonias and impatiens, though more costly to raise, almost always sell out first. Popular perennials include Columbine, bleeding heart, delphiniums and bearded iris.

If you live in a rural area, focus on growing flowers for resale to garden centers and other retailers in nearby larger towns. Concentrate on plants the big growers have overlooked because they take more care but for which there is always a market. The three floral “niches” that fit this description nicely are African violets, heritage roses and wildflowers native to your area.

African violets are always in demand, easy to propagate from cuttings and grow and sell the best in the winter when the blooms can bring a spot of color indoors. They come in an almost endless variety of colors and range from thimble size plants to giants. There are trailing violets that spread and the “cousins”- plants in the Gesneriad family such as Streptocarpus and Chirita.

Many small growers use a basement or spare room to grow African violets, as they don’t require a lot of space. In fact, a square foot of growing space can produce nine 4-inch potted plants four times a year That’s over 1400 plants in a modest 4′ x 10′ area, which, at a retail price of $6, is $8400 worth of African violets! Fluorescent lights are fine for African violets, which have lower light requirements than many flowers. Be sure to use full spectrum bulbs.

As with most flowers, sales of African violets are strongest during the holidays – Valentine’s Day, Memorial Day, Mothers Day and Christmas. You’ll find a mini–growing guide at motherearthnews.com. Just enter “African Violet” in the search bar. Although the article is several years old, the growing information is detailed and timeless.

Another “niche” flower that has been popular for many years is “heritage” or “heirloom” roses. The name refers to a rose that was in cultivation before 1867, when “LaFrance”, the first hybrid tea rose was developed. The hybrids became popular because they were longer bloomers and had bolder colors. Why the renewed interest in these old beauties? There are several reasons. One is the exquisite fragrance of the old roses. Another is their hardiness. The old heritage roses tend to be much more disease resistant than the modern hybrids.

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