Putting down roots

This time of year, the ground is frozen and most people's gardens are covered with a layer of snow. Yet the onslaught of winter doesn't mean time off for the owners of local nurseries and greenhouses.

Because business at Dickman Farms is about 85 percent wholesale and 15 percent retail, owner Dave Dickman's winters are anything but slow.

“Our main business this time of year is as a rooting station for the Ball Seed Company,” he said. “They ship us un-rooted cuttings #- what I mean by un-rooted cuttings is that they're harvested off of a mother plant somewhere - from Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Israel, and Portugal. We receive those cuttings, and they're all tied to an order for plants that have roots on them that other people are going to use to bump up into six-inch pots, baskets, or that sort of thing.”