The Citizen-On The Farm, 2004-03-18, Page 38Beautiful selections
Sylvia Nonkes, owner of Spring Breezes greenhouse near
Blyth, holds a tray of rebenio that is ready for transplanting.
(Elyse DeBruyn photo)
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THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2004. PAGE A-17.
On the farm
Greenhouses get growing for spring
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A • • A •
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1$
By Elyse DeBruyn
Citizen staff .
The spring season has already
arrived for local greenhouses
businesses as they finish their plants
and flowers arrangements while
preparing for the busy season on the
family farm.
Greenhouses have been preparing
since December for the May-June
spring rush, when people get a touch
of spring fever and want to begin
planting.
Sylvia Nonkes, owner of Spring
Breezes Greenhouse, west of Blyth,
said she found herself really
enjoying her part-time job at another
greenhouse, so when a friend wanted
to sell a small greenhouse, Nonkes
decided to buy it.
She said she and her husband farm
poultry and cash crops, so her
greenhouse is an added-on business
to the farm.
What started as a hobby for
Nonkes, turned out to be a little
much, so she started a small business
out of her greenhouse and as the
years went by business grew and so
did the greenhouse.
Seven years later, Nonkes has four
greenhouses covering 6,000 square
feet.
She explained that before putting
up the foundation for the
greenhouse, the ground must be
made level. After the foundation is
down, bays, made of medal hoops
with plastic covering, are put into
place surrounding the foundation.
Spring Breezes offers a variety of
bedding plants including geraniums,
trailing petunias and verbenas.
Nonkes said her plants start with
cuttings that are proven winners
including verbena, millionbells,
trailing snapdragons, double
impatiens and New Guinea
impatiens.
Cuttings are a small chunk off the
mother plant which are dipped into a
rooting hormone and finally put into
the soil.
Successful root cuttings are easiest
from species with thick, fleshy roots
or at least bits of underground
anatomy that are thick enough to be
easily handled.
Root cuttings need reasonable
compost, a moderate but steady
temperature, space and a little
patience. Unlike stem or leaf
cuttings, root cuttings develop
underground so you cannot see what
is going on.
Nonkes said it takes about eight to
12 weeks for all the cuttings to be in
bloom.
"It's fun to see them grow," she
said.
Gaye Datema, owner of Wetsinge
Farm Flowers on Currie Line, west
of Blyth, said her business of five
years, also started out as personal
hobby as she loves gardening and
wanted a small greenhouse for when
she retired.
"When I started I said to myself,
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I'm at least going to stay for five
years (like most jobs)," she said.
Her daughter-in-law works at
Zehrs in Strathroy and when the
grocery store built a new
greenhouse, the old one was
available, so Datema's son (who
works at a flower store in Strathroy)
brought her the metal hoops so she
could begin herown greenhouse.
"The hydro, furnace, water and
plastic cost a lot and it's hard to
make money it. The first year we
realized we were doing well so we
kept going," said Datema who also
helps to run a cow operation on the
farm with her husband.
"The businesses run well together.
The dry manure and compost goes
on the garden flowers, but they are
two separate businesses," said
Datema.
To make a living on just a
greenhouse, she said it would have
to be "10 times the size of mine."
Her newest greenhouse is 100 feet
long and 20 feet wide and full of cut
flowers and plants including
delphinums and Monteros.
Greyhaven Gardens, owned by
Gerry and Gladys Greydanus, is
45,000 square feet divided up among
two farms, one just outside of
Londesborough.
"We started with four bays and
now we have 15," said their son
Derick.
The business started 12 years ago
with vegetables in the field including
tomatoes, cauliflower and broccoli.
They bought plants from another
greenhouse then decided they
wanted to build their own so they
could grow their own vegetables and
start growing flowers.
Greyhaven Gardens offers a wide
variety in their 13,000 hanging
baskets as well as mandavilas, ivy
geraniums, blizzard series
geraniums including cascading ivy
geraniums.
He said their biggest seller is
geraniums.
Nonkes's champion plants are
spider plants, ivy, coleus, bacopa and
various daisies.
Last year she- said she did a lot
more studying and expanded the
business more by offering day lilies,
delphiniums, coral bells, perennials,
geraniums, iris, veronicas, phlox and
lots of hostas.
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"Some we grow ourselves and
some we buy in," said Nonkes.
The plants grown in her
greenhouse are started from seed or
bare root and the ones purchased
come from a perennial grower.
She said she gets a small amount
of unusual shrubs and vines from the
perennial grower as well.
"Our big seller is geraniums.
People like them because they are a
good quality and price," she said.
Aside from a variety of hanging
baskets and bedding plants, Datema
also offers vegetables like cabbages
and tomatoes.
"People know your place and if
they like what they see then they
come back," said Datema.
Along with al I the bedding plants,
Nonkes offers hanging baskets and
mixed containers of geraniums.
"Mixed containers are my
favourite thing to do because it's not
just geraniums used, but a whole
variety of plants with different
colours and textures. It creates an
interesting pot," she said.
Although she uses a variety in her
hanging baskets, Nonkes said she
still has to put plants together that
need the same requirements like the
amount of sunlight and the amount
of water.
"1 like flowers that last the whole
season from spring to almost frost,"
said Nonkes.
Datema's favourite thing is seeing
all the colour when the plants start
Continued on A-18
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