On a rainy, cloudy Monday, Jenna Rossbach was found in her greenhouse on Pony Farm Road in Moretown, surrounded by small blooming annuals arrayed on table upon table in one of her two greenhouses. Working with her, filling hanging baskets with potting soil from the bed of a borrowed trailer was Nancy Sargent.
Over the last weeks Rossbach (with the help of Sargent) has been transferring rooted cuttings into small pots and then into 4-inch pots. She’s been doing this with both flowers ands vegetables.
Last year, after Tobi and Sally von Trapp closed their Waitsfield greenhouse business, Rossbach’s business increased significantly. With help and mentorship and supplies like tables and basket hangers from the von Trapps, she was able to grow her business and she’s taking another leap forward this year.
“I have twice as many plants this year as I did last year. Last year, Tobi came by
and said ‘you need to fill this space up. If you’re going to heat it, fill it.’ Now I’m overrun with plants,” Rossbach said.
She’s learning as she goes, too. Last year when she made her hanging baskets, she transferred the plant plugs directly into the baskets, but found that their root systems weren’t well developed that way. This year, the plugs go into 4-inch pots to develop roots before going into the baskets.
That Monday in Moretown it was cool and rainy, after five days of weather in the 80s and Rossbach was happy not to have to water all the plants in her cold frames outside the bigger of her two greenhouses. She has broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower Brussel sprouts and some herbs in the cold frames.
The smaller and older of her two greenhouses is attached to her house and it has a cinder block base, glass panel walls and ceiling and a tiny woodstove. Accessing this greenhouse through her house meant meeting her dog Suerte and his visiting friend canine friend Betsy who came along for a tour of the older greenhouse. This older greenhouse was built by the late Wendell Austin in 1986 as a commercial greenhouse and Rossbach said that Moretown resident (and Betsy’s human grandmother) Annette Schultz told her she used to buy her plants here.
“When Wendell passed away, Hoover (Austin) used it for storage,” Rossbach explained.
There’s barely room to walk in the narrow aisles of the smaller greenhouse with table upon table of 2-inch tomato plants and 2-inch better plants. The names of the tomatoes are intoxicating and the smell of the tiny tomato plants offers the promise of the garden.
Fancy Plants opens May 13, Mother’s Day, and will be open Wednesday through Monday, closed Tuesdays until mid-July.
