ERIN NEGLEY | Staff Writer
This story was published in winter 2019.
Dianthus plants are commonly known as pinks, yet they bloom in a rainbow of colors. Some have double flowers. Some smell like spicy cloves. They’re compact, bloom for a long time and some species are edible.
Many of these plants that are found across the United States have their roots in Lancaster County. Inside five greenhouses near Smoketown grow mother plants of about 120 dianthus varieties. Workers harvest cuttings from these mother plants and share them with garden centers around North America. In a year, Green Leaf Plants will grow and ship about 2.5 million dianthus cuttings.
All this happens in a complex of greenhouses not far from Lancaster’s busy outlets on Lincoln Highway East. Green Leaf sells plants wholesale, meaning the business isn’t open to the public. Yet, with more than 20 million starter plants grown at Green Leaf, it’s one of the largest greenhouse businesses in the county.
Managing director Blair Hoey compares it to car manufacturing. One company makes steel, which is sent to another plant to be stamped into a hood before going to another plant for assembly.
In horticulture manufacturing, plants are grown from cuttings, seeds or tissue cultures. Then the tiny plants are sent elsewhere to be “finished,” or grown large enough to be shipped out and sold at garden centers.
Around the world
For many of the plants, their time here starts in the production barn. Unrooted cuttings are sent to Green Leaf from countries around the world.
On a snowy February day, workers were planting tray after tray of lavender plants from Colombia. Many of the plants come from the “coffee belt,” the area surrounding the equator, Hoey says. There, temperatures are higher and don’t drop to freezing.
The cuttings that arrive at Green Leaf are planted into propagation trays. On an average week, workers will plant 250,000 to 300,000 tiny plants.
The plants then go into a propagation greenhouse. Over the next five to eight weeks, they’ll grow roots.
“It’s kind of like what mom used to do on the windowsill with pothos (a popular houseplant),” Hoey says.
With more than 20 million starter plants grown here, Green Leaf is one of the largest greenhouse businesses in the county.
But on a much larger scale. The propagation greenhouse covers about 1.5 acres. Here, the temperature stays around 68 to 70 degrees, but the humidity and watering changes by plant through computerized misters. Plants like lavender need more moisture. Others, like sedums or succulents, need less.
It’s a lot bigger than when the company started in Maryland and then moved to Leola in the early 1970s. In the mid-1990s, Yoder Brothers Inc. purchased the company and a few years later moved the operation to East Lampeter Township. Yoder changed its name to Aris Horticulture in 2009. Green Leaf is one of three divisions of the Ohio-based company.
Some plants are grown from seeds and spend days or weeks in a germination chamber until they sprout.
Germination and vernalization
Some plants start in a sowing room. On that cold February day, refrigerated delphinium and lavender seeds are dropped by a machine into trays and watered. They spend days or weeks in a germination chamber until they sprout. The room is kept at 72 degrees and 90 percent humidity to encourage sprouting.
Other greenhouses stay cooler to give the perennial plants the vernalization period needed to trigger flowering months later. One is called “the tundra” and has near-frozen hostas and succulents protected under layers of landscaping fabric.
Back in the propagation greenhouses, when the tiny plants have grown roots and leaves, yet aren’t too leggy, they’re ready to go.
Just like the clothing industry has to work ahead, businesses like Green Leaf produce plants early enough for the finishing growers to have them ready in time for eager gardeners. Plants leaving Green Leaf in February might not end up in a retail store until July or August, Hoey says.
Buzz hot raspberry butterfly bush are grown at Green Leaf.
Working with perennial plants, herbs and grasses, there’s always something happening in these greenhouses. However, much of the work is seasonal. The company used to work with agencies that hire out temporary workers but that changed when farm labor certifications were required, says Cindy Myers, human resources manager.
She heard about the work of local refugee resettlement programs at her church and for the past few years has found seasonal workers through Church World Service and Bethany Christian Services. A map on the wall shows that its workers grew up all over the world. There are pins clustered in Pennsylvania, Central and South America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
“You hear their stories, and we’re grateful to be able to help them. We’re teaching them the basics of how to keep a job. How to use a time clock. How you’re expected to come to work every day,” Myers says. “We’re trying to give them that foundation so that they’re able to stay with us and move on to something different.”
Dianthus plants are commonly known as pinks, yet they bloom in a rainbow of colors.
Growing dianthus
The dianthus is one type of plant that is finished in Lancaster County.
Workers make cuttings from full-grown mother plants. Some are sold as unrooted cuttings for customers to finish. Others are grown into rooted plugs, says Jenny Cady, inside sales support.
The blooms range from white and pale pink to bright scarlet and crimson red. Though “pinks” is what the plants are commonly called, it has nothing to do with the color. The name derives from the edges of the delicate petals, which look like they’ve been cut with pinking shears.
New this year is a collection called American Pie, with a key lime version that has white blooms and green centers, and a peach pie variety with blush pink blooms and coral centers.
It goes to show that even when dealing with a plant that dates back thousands of years, plant breeders continue coming up with something new.
