Page 10 - MNLGA Free State Winter 2023_WEB

Potting Wagon Lexan Sides

Lexan Guard To Stop Spillage

THIS BUSINESS OF OURS (Continued) always sell. My father called them the bread-and-butter
But the mixer and conveyor will work, and more efficiently, plants. Hydrangeas are still going strong; a couple of
with the on-the-fly changes we made. Larry did have to new ones seem to be starting to be in more demand. The
use some scraps of Lexan to make a shield to prevent older Limelight and Little Lime are selling well. I need to
spillage. I really want to get the whole system running for propagate more Limelight and buy more Little Lime liners.
a few days to see how it goes and then finish the learning I bought 60 this past winter, potted them in 3 gallons and
curve, as it is so called. But right now, we are in the as of this late October there are 4 left. This year’s rooted
process of shifting plants around for the coming winter. Limelight’s are going directly into 3 gallons, at least some
We are going to have plenty of space to put our winter of them.
plant move-ups. I will report the company name of the Earlier this year I raved a bit about the Mini Mauve
potting machine in my next article. After we have wrung it Hydrangea - how nice and interesting it was. Well, I’m
out by using it all winter, to be fair. going to take back my praise. Far too many have died on
Labor has really been up and down thing this year, which us this summer. Mini Mauves that were mixed in with other
was the big reason for the potting machine purchase. hydrangeas did fine and had no deaths. Another batch of
Right now, with the hiring of a mature and known hard 5 that Larry moved up into 7’s and put into a shady place
worker, we are good in that department. with other hydrangeas all died. I’ll give them another
chance this year, but any repeat of this summer they go
It’s been a good year for us; I have heard some on the bummer list. I’d like to hear from anyone else that
disappointment from two of the peninsula’s nurseries and did or didn’t have this problem.
a couple of landscapers. But all-in-all, no one has said
it’s been a bad year. We have already beaten last year’s Encore Azaleas are still doing well and noticeably cut
income, but with the purchases we made the profit is not. into other azaleas sales. I am propagating all of those I
But it was money that needed to be spent. legally can.

Plant sales have been in the usual plants we and others I will say again, my sod stapled-down holder container

10 WINTER 2023 • Free State News