“Carolina Bulb Farms” by Susan Iden, Carolina Co-operator, March, 1936
New Hanover County leads in number of commercial bulb farms with Beaufort second. The flowers have a ready sale in New York.
A little bit of Holland in tulip time has been transplanted to Eastern North Carolina. The fields have been all brilliant the past few weeks with patches of rose and pink, blue and yellow, varying hues of the tall nodding tulips, Dutch iris and jonquils. The flowers find a ready sale on the New York markets, gracing the tables of many homes in the metropolis the next afternoon after they are cut from the fields.
It is a pretty sight to drive through Eastern Carolina in springtime—the Coastal Plain Experiment Station at Willard, bright with its early flowering bulbs, and a little farther on the more extensive bulb fields of Castle Hayne where the flowers are grown commercially. Those at Willard are grown only for experiment, a part of the work of the station.
The little farms look like so many patchwork quilts spread out over the land, mostly green with orderly rows of lettuce, peas, strawberries, clean of weeds and grass, with thrifty things growing, the flowers adding splashes of brilliant color.
The Coastal Plain Experiment Station was established about 20 years ago and has done some notable work with the scuppernong and muscadine grape vines and the products of the grapes. When government restrictions were placed on imported bulbs some years ago there came opportunities for bulb culture that added experiments with narcissus, jonquils, daffodils, Dutch iris, and tulips to the work of the station. Under the direction of Dr. Charles Dearing, extensive experiments have been carried on at the station with a view to awakening Eastern Carolina farmers to the money-making opportunities at their doors.
Newberry, an early traveling florist, recognizing that the climate and soil of the Coastal Plain section were well adapted to bulb culture, several decades ago started the business around Magnolia, offering contract to farmers to produce bulbs. At one time the state was the sole source of supply of the tube roses of the world. With strong competition developing from Holland bulb growers, Newberry went out of the business but the bulb culture was continued in Eastern North Carolina by the Crooms.
About 20 years ago Hugh McRae of Wilmington developed a prosperous colony of farmers at Castle Hayne. He tried at first to get native farmers but later brought in Holland immigrants. They naturally turned to bulb growing, the great industry of their native country. The American-grown bulbs, it was found, came into bloom about two weeks earlier than the imported bulbs.
Tulips, jonquils, Dutch iris, and gladioli, when grown commercially on the bulb farms are planted in straight rows, making them easy to cut. The rows are about three feet apart, the bulbs planted about two to four inches apart in the rows and about four inches deep.
At the Experiment Station, Dr. Dearing has made some interesting experiments in naturalizing jonquil bulbs, planting them broadcast through the pine woods. They have adapted themselves to the experiment very well.
While some trade is carried on by the farmers in bulbs, it is largely from the sale of the flowers that they derive their profit. In the spring time Raleigh and other cities in the state enjoy the beauty of quantities of lovely yellow jonquils, daffodils, tulips, and Dutch iris that cut from the bulb fields flood the markets.
The flowers are shipped as far as New York, which handles as many of the flowers as the bulb growers can ship. Cut from the fields during the afternoon and packed immediately for shipment they are sold in New York the next afternoon.
Sorted and tied as soon as they are cut from the fields the tulips are left in water for a while until the stems are filled with water in which condition they stand the trip North in good shape. Dutch iris are shipped in the bud just before they are ready to burst open.
There are 26 commercial bulb growers in Eastern North Carolina, mostly in New Hanover County, two in Beaufort County. They grow 325 acres of narcissus, daffodils, Dutch iris, tulips, gladiolus, and peonies.
The growing of the bulb flowers for the market really became a commercial industry about 10 years ago and has expanded rapidly. Most of the growers by far are the Dutch, having had experience in bulb and flower culture in Holland.
Flowers from daffodil and iris bulbs used to be grown outdoors entirely, but in the past five years some are grown in beds under glass or matting causing the bloom buds to develop earlier, that is, from January 15th to March 1st. In the past three years, some growers have planted bulbs in heated glass houses, thus getting blooms in December and November. These bring high prices as they compete favorably with greenhouse forced daffodil and iris blooms grown in the North and East. Such blooms bring from 75 cents to $1.50 a dozen, whereas outdoor-grown blooms in March might bring from 10 to 20 cents a dozen delivered in New York.
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