The Rural Voice, 1999-03, Page 26Business is blooming 12
months a year
For the Steckle family growing knows no
winter
Story and photos by Keith Roulston
While most of their
neighbours are just rolling
their planters out of storage
sheds and preparing for the spring
season ahead, planting has already
begun for the Stecklc family near
Zurich. In fact, so has harvest.
For Dave and Carol and Kevin
and Lorraine Stecklc and their
employees, planting and harvest are
12 -month a year operations as they
try to make the most of their capital
investment in their greenhouse
operation.
So in mid-February staff was busy
planting seeds for spring bedding
plant sales at the same time as a
colourful greenhouse full of primula
awaited shipping to colour -starved
customers across the province. Other
greenhouses are filled with cineraria
and pansies about to bloom.
What began in 1973 as a sideline
to the Steckle's mixed farming
operation now takes up so much time
that, come spring, the rest of their
100 -acre farm will be cropped on
shares by a neighbour while the
family concentrates on the one -acre -
plus under plastic and the
surrounding beds for summer plants.
It all began, says Carol Steckle,
when a neighbour was selling
greenhouse frames back in 1973.
Dave had always had an interest in
greenhouses, she remembers, so they
decided to buy the frames and start a
business growing spring bedding
plants.
22 THE RURAL VOICE
The sideline was a success and
from there things just grew. One by
one new greenhouses were added
over the years as demand increased
until the operation that started with
one small 2,000 square foot
greenhouse, today has 50,000 square
feet under plastic.
In the early years they not only
sold bedding plants but nursery stock
and had a pick -your -own operation.
As the business in the greenhouse
grew, however, they decided to give
up the strawberry patch because the
new plants needed to be transplanted
into the fields at the time they were
the busiest in the garden centre.
As their investment in the
greenhouse increased, they came to
the realization they had to utilize
their capital better and they began to
look at year-round use of the facility.
The turning point came in the fall of
1992 when they were accepted into
the Ontario Flower Growers' Co-
operative. Now twice weekly, (three
or four times in busy seasons) at the
end of a long day in the greenhouse,
Dave loads up the company van with
plants and heads out for the co-op's
warehouse in Mississauga where
their flowers will be sold the next
morning on the Dutch -clock auction
system. Leaving at 5:00 p.m., he'll be
back by midnight.
The family is blessed by its
proximity to the market, Carol says.
While they live just over a two-hour
trip away from the co-op, the
Carol Steckle tends some of the
30,000 primulas her family's
greenhouse will ship this year.
warehouse itself is within an easy
drive of a huge portion of the North
American population.
The Steckle's niche in the market
seems to be in four -inch potted
plants. Between Christmas and
March, for instance, they will ship
30,000 pots of primula. Planted the
previous July and August, they bring
a riot of colour to shops and homes
across the province and beyond.
Primula has the added benefit of
liking cool temperatures, allowing
them to save on fuel in the
greenhouses.
Prior to Christmas the
greenhouses are ablaze with
poinsettias. After Christmas brightly
coloured cyclamen head out to
flower shops. Later in the winter it's
cineraria and pansies that will bring
and touch of spring.
In mid -winter seeding begins for
the spring bedding plants and
hanging baskets are planted so they'll
be in full bloom for gardening
season. In summer outdoor beds are
filled with chrysanthemums growing
for the potted mum season in the fall.
Despite their success, the Steckles
are hardly rich. As they've grown,
they have plowed their profits back
into the business
"Over the years there have been a
lot of times we could have done
better financially working for