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Re: Current Report from the Great Plains and Wichita, Kansas

Dear Sara Jane,

Special thanks for your posting today and interest in things "Glassehouse,
Kansas, Prairies and Mid-West."

Truly, it has been an dreadful summer in terms of heat here and lack of rain.
Only this week has the temperature dropped under the 100's to the 90's.  We've
had no rain for weeks.  Our days are spent watering and misting in the
greenhouses and then going outside  in the gardens to move the many hoses from
station to station all day long.  In spite of this, plants are burned badly.
Hostas, dogwoods, even the angel trumpets have brown edges.  The crabapple
grove is shedding its leaves due to heat.  The bald cypress that has been one
of the stars of front garden, is turning.

We have very efficient cooling and misting systems in the greenhouses;
consequently, things are much better off there.  We've just recently moved a
large collection of African violets to a long bench in front of the cooling
pads, and you should see how they have stood up and said, Thank you!"  We have
gorgeous large blooms on almost all of the stock plants!   (We have a new
collection of all doubles from Lyndon Lyons that are just coming into their
own so to speak and they are lovely.  Some of the finest we have received from
Lyons.

We hear a cool front from the North is slowly moving down this way and we will
welcome it with open arms.

This is our 52nd  year of working with exotic, tropical house plants.  The
year have flown and it hardly seems possible.  Our family began the
Glassehouse business in 1946 specializing in African violets, then adding
gesneriads, other tropicals and exotics, and on to miniature collections
especially for terrarium use.  That led us to Martha Stewart, her television
show which we did in the spring and on to supplying her with plants for her
home, offices, magazines and this summer, her new mail order catalog featuring
a terrarium and the miniature and dwarf gesneriads, begonias, ivies, mosses
and selaginellas, ferns, ficuses, peperomias, sinningias and African violets.
It has been exhausting at times, trying to keep up our own shipping as well as
supplying her needs.  As summer wanes, and autumn arrives, I'm hoping things
will taper off a bit.  I'd like to take a walk, ride a bike, go out for a
lunch and a movie maybe.  It seems that since taking on added responsibilities
for this year in the greenhouses, we have either been propagating or packing
or watering!  I think I may be ready for fall and winter this year.

So good to hear from you.  I too got my bachelor's and master's here at
Wichita State before going to Europe to do my doctorate.  I'm sure you liked
Wichita State.  I have very good memories of my years there.  The professors
were excellent and looking back, I have only positive things to say.

Tell me more about what you are doing now, what kind of work you're in and
what kind of plants you're enjoying.  Will be good to hear back from you.

Cordially,

Jim McKinney, McKinney's Glassehouse (gesneriads@aol.com)
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