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Mrs. Amy Alcorn, Mason City, Iowa, has a basement greenhouse par excellence. Here, without benefit of any sunlight, grow hundreds of house plants. She has 400 varieties of African violets—I don't know how many plants!

Her interest in Saintpaulias (African violets) began in 1946 when ill health forced her to curtail her outdoor gardening. Her first African violet, Blue Boy, was a gift. From that one plant she eventually grew enough others to do a little trading. Soon she had a collection of blue, white, and pink violets and decided to sell some of the surplus. She ran an advertisement in the local newspaper but the superior tones of many prospective customers informed her that they had as many as fifteen varieties. However, she did sell enough plants to pay for the advertisement and to spur her on to obtaining more desirable "collector" varieties.

BEFORE MUCH time elapsed the family began, looking apprehensively at window sills, lamp tables, the coffee table, and even one corner of the dining table where violets had to be lodged to obtain correct light.

But one happy day Mrs. Alcorn read an advertisement suggesting a fluorescent lighted plant case as an ideal means for home house plant growing and propagating.

By this time Mrs. Alcorn had become known as "the violet lady" and her lectures and plant sales had brought her in enough money to invest in this lighted case.

In this propagator, a six-foot box-like affair on legs, with lights in the hinged cover, she roots her plants in individual pots of vermiculite or vermiculite and peat moss. (A government bulletin, Plant Propagation Under Lights, may be obtained free by writing: Bureau of Plant Research, Beltsville, Maryland. Instructions for making a lighted case are included in it.) Her small leaf-starter pots are her own idea. To make them she cuts a six-inch square of foil. If it is lightweight, such as kitchen foil from a roll, she uses it double. The foil is then folded into a triangle, opened and folded into a reverse triangle. This leaves four sharp creases. She places a 1½-inch plastic pot in the center of the unfolded foil, takes one creased corner and folds it over toward the next and so on until the pot is encased in the foil. Then she punctures a drainage hole in the bottom (a sharpened pencil is handy for this). The newly formed pot is slipped from its mold—the real pot—and ready for use. The finished product is lightweight, holds moisture well, and can be re-used many times.

The plants grown under lights were so far superior to those grown on Mrs. Alcorn's well lighted glass-shelved porch that she had her husband fashion another lighted planter. This is a three-decker on wheels. The lights are forty-watt daylight fluorescent, but white-light fluorescents could also be used. There are two light tubes to each deck. Sheets of galvanized tin, painted white inside to reflect light, are fastened to the top deck. Sheets of curved tin to which the lights are anchored serve the same purpose in the middle and lower deck. The shelves have attached pulleys for raising and lowering them according to the light needs of the plants. Rust-resistant plant trays rest in the grooves formed by the angle iron. The iron used to make the framework of the stand came from an old bed.

PLANTS GROW so rapidly under lights that Mrs. Alcorn soon found it necessary to add another light setup—this time a similarly constructed four-deck affair. And with this steady increase in numbers of plants came the need for a supply corner. But for a handy man like husband Jack it was not much of a trick to build some twelve- and sixteen-inch deep shelves on the lattice-work wall that separates the "greenhouse" from the rest of the basement.

If you want to try growing plants under lights but do not want to go into anything quite so elaborate as this setup, just fasten a pair of forty-watt fluorescent lights to a white-painted piece of plywood and suspend it by chain, rope or wire above your plants. If it isn't on pulleys you can boost the plants nearer the lights by setting them on inverted flower pots or tall foil-covered fruit juice cans. And there are also several commercial fluorescent light setups for home use on the market.

Mrs. Alcorn makes a point of stocking the very latest in varieties. Those no longer popular with her collector customers are sold at reduced prices to dime stores or plant counters. African violet fans are becoming familiar with this advertisement which she runs in several of the plant specialty and gardening magazines: "Top Of The Crop African Violets, 210 S. Rhode Island, Mason City, Iowa." These advertisements are responsible for most of her mail order business. She runs at least two a month and they vary in cost from $2.50 to $8.50, according to the publication. A sign outside her porch which reads, "African Violets—400 Varieties For Sale" helps bring in some local business. Occasionally she advertises in the local paper. Her work with church groups and the local garden club has also helped stimulate home town sales. Lectures given in neighboring cities have acquainted would-be growers with her wide selection of plants.

MRS. ALCORN thinks it pays to belong to specialized plant societies and is a member of the African Violet Society, Box 1326, Knoxville, Tennessee (dues $3 a year), and the American Gloxinia Society, 3810 Bales Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri (dues $2.50 per year). The African Violet Society issues a quarterly magazine, the American Gloxinia Society a bimonthly magazine. In these plant societies members are urged to join in round robins, correspondence groups taking up various phases of plant culture. There are beginner groups as well as those for the more advanced horticulturists. The members get to know one another very well and become real plant pals. Mrs. Alcorn has included her listing in her round robins and has sold many of her plants to the members and their friends. In these plant societies members also exchange many rare and hard-to-get varieties and species of plants.

To obtain newest varieties Mrs. Alcorn buys small plants or rooted leaf cuttings of the newest varieties and under her expert culture she soon has many small plants for sale. One leaf, depending on the variety, will produce an average of ten plants. Her charges for leaves of newer varieties run from twenty-five to seventy-five cents apiece—depending on the scarcity of the product; rooted cuttings bring fifty cents to $1. Those hot off the hybridizers griddle bring even more. Mrs. Alcorn ships rooted cuttings in her small foil pots. By placing crumpled newspaper in the corners of a cardboard box and shredded paper on the bottom, the newspaper-wrapped cuttings arrive safely. She does not ship large plants—they are sold locally for $1 to $3.50—depending again on the variety. Unrooted leaf cuttings will arrive at their destination crisp and green when the tip of the stem is inserted in a bit of moistened cotton and the cotton then wrapped in foil.

The original cost of the tubes and starters (a form of a switch, an integral part of the circuit of a preheat lamp such as a fluorescent but not the actual switch for turning them on), minus reflectors, runs from $9 to $12; depending where you purchase them; with reflectors they are from $15 to $20.

Tubes last about a year and replacements cost $1 per tube. Mrs. Alcorn leaves the lights on about fifteen hours a day. The cost of running fluorescent lights, varying with the area, is approximately seventy-five cents per forty-watt tube per month—considering a twelve to fifteen hour light day as normal. It is possible to obtain a time switch to turn the light on and off automatically. These are available from mail order houses or specialty plant sales firms. Mrs. Alcorn's fluorescent light bill is about $7.50 per month.

Mrs. Alcorn feels she spends about two hours each day with her plants and averages $12 to $15 profit per week Since this is a pleasurable as well as profitable hobby much of the proceeds of sales are reinvested in more lights, new and better stock and supplies. But every bit of this "greenhouse" and its contents has been paid for with money earned from her plants.

HERE ARE some of Mrs. Alcorn's rules for successful African violet culture under lights:

"I never place a newly-purchased plant among older established varieties. It may be a disease or pest carrier. It is best to place these plants in a ward by themselves and when they have earned a clean bill of health—usually in about six weeks—they are placed among the others.

"I dip the stems of all leaf cuttings I'm going to root in a solution of Optox Special. This is obtainable at seed stores and greenhouses and has a germicidal effect on the cuttings.

"I keep the house plant aero bombs (spray-types) around and give all the plants a few whiffs every week. This kills aphids, spiders and thrips.

"Under the lights leaves will root in as little time as three weeks and flower when four to five months old. Window gardeners find it takes nine months to a year to flower African violets from cuttings.

"This is my favorite soil mixture for small one- to three-inch plants: Equal parts of good garden loam, peat moss or leaf mold and sand. I prefer this heavier mixture for mature plants: Four parts garden soil, four parts vermiculite or sand, two parts leaf mold or peat moss, one part well rotted manure.

"I sterilize all soil by baking it in a moderate oven (180 degrees F.) until a small potato placed in the center of the soil is done. Never use this soil until it has thoroughly cooled—at least twenty-four hours.

"I always water my plants thoroughly with tepid water and never water again until the topsoil feels dry. If I spill some water on the leaves of under-the-light plants it won't matter—this "sun" is not powerful enough to burn them.

"I fertilize with an all-purpose fertilizer about six weeks after potting and every two weeks thereafter. Never fertilize cuttings that have not sprouted leaves.

"This African exotic favors these temperatures: 70 to 75 degrees F. days, 60 to 65 nights. They need perfect light such as comes in a bright but not too sunny window or illumination from fluorescents to bloom. Three hundred to 600 foot-candles (a unit of illumination measurement; test it with a photometer) provides perfect light in various stages of growth.

"Window gardeners are always faced with the problem of providing adequate humidity for their plants. Basements are usually cooler and more humid than the rest of the house so here the problem is not so acute. Most house plants, including African violets, will not flower when humidity is below forty. Humidiguide, an inexpensive instrument, gives you air moisture readings as a thermometer measures temperatures. You can procure one at any hardware store. Increase humidity by setting the potted plants atop moistened sand or pebble-filled trays or tins."

HERE ARE some of Mrs. Alcorn's suggestions concerning placement of plants under lights. Cuttings can be rooted twelve to fourteen inches from the lights. Small plants need the most foot-candles and can be placed two to three inches from the forty-watt fluorescents; older plants, depending on size, eleven to fourteen inches from the tubes. If the foliage appears yellow the plants are too close; if long and willowy, the plants are not blooming up to par, they are too far from the lights.

You can increase your violets by rooting leaves in water, vermiculite or sand, but Mrs. Alcorn feels the solid media is best. She says, "Leaves rooted in water often suffer too much of a shock when placed in soil."

Recently Mrs. Alcorn has added plant food, insecticide, potting soil additives and sterilized potting mixtures to her "for sale" list. These are obtained from various manufacturers and she makes a commission on them.

Her interest in African violets has led her to explore other members of the Gesneria family (African violet relatives) and she now grows handsome gloxinias, splashy-leaved episcias (flame violets), red-leaved smithianthas, and dainty achimenes under lights. All of these plants take culture and light treatment comparable to that of the African violet. And she has found, too, that rex begonias (the kind with the brilliantly-colored leaves) and the little wax begonias as well as most house vines thrive under this man-made sun.