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