Eleven years ago, Albert H. Buell hardly knew a petunia from a pansy. Today, he’s the proud originator and grower of his strains of hybrid gloxinias, judged by experts to be among the finest available anywhere in the world.
His rise to fame has all the elements of a Horatio Alger story, except that, in this case, he is a true story, and up to now, he has not become wealthy.
Albert’s Background and Beginnings
Much as you’d expect, Albert’s early training was not in the field of horticulture.
Born nearly 35 years ago in the little town of Eastford, Conn., he attended high school in nearby Putnam and went to the state trade school for a year. After this, his ambitions pointed toward being a small-town contractor for the rest of his life.
In a matter of three years, he was attracted by the only major industry supporting the town of 500 residents—a wood-turning mill that makes handles for striking tools and picker sticks for the textile industry. And there he still is employed as a foreman while he continues to grow gloxinias as a sideline.
Discovery of Gloxinias
Without question, the turning point in Albert’s life was the day his aunt brought home a blue slipper gloxinia, which she had obtained from an old ladies’ home in New Hampshire.
The color of the flowers was not clear; the blooms were relatively small, and they nodded.
To Albert, though, this entirely new plant excited his curiosity. Then and there, he decided to thoroughly study all gloxinias to discover how many kinds there were and what it took to make them grow.
Thus, before World War II cut off all imports of bulbs from Europe, he bought tubers of the named varieties then available.
Their performance, though good, left much to be desired in the size of the flower, variety of color, plant habit, and arrangement of the blooms on the plant.
Emperor Frederick, the red variety with white edging, grew and was subsequently discarded. Another crimson scarlet named King of the Reds showed well in the fall but would not grow for him in the spring.
Albert’s Hybridization Program
Like all plant collectors, he also began swapping plants. For one of his blue slippers, he got from Mr. Twiss a plant with bell-shaped blooms with a variegated purple color, which was to figure out later in his breeding work.
In 1942, Albert tried his luck with a packet of seed purchased from a Boston Seedhouse.
The instructions said to start them in a dark place. So when the seed was sown in a box of soil, he placed it on the top shelf in a cupboard.
Fifty seeds came up in two weeks, but when he switched the box to a bright sunny window, only four tiny plants survived the shock.
Of these, one later died, another died, and one had small blue flowers, but the fourth had hybrid characteristics.
The plant was compact, the foliage was luxuriant, and the flowers were a velvety red color, speckled at the edges. This one later proved to be a good pollen parent. Albert was now ready to start his breeding program in earnest.
The first crop of seedlings to bloom in 1943, resulting from the red seedling crossed onto the Twiss purple, were much finer than he had anticipated.
There were rich purples and reds in solid colors and speckled red and purple. Still, others were of pastel tones in pink, blue, and lavender, often being very delicately tinted.
New blood was brought into his hybrids in 1946 when he purchased 20 mixed tubers from a Philadelphia Seedhouse.
Most of this batch had poor flowers and foliage, but three good plants had big, ruffled flowers with deep bowls. Their color was the reverse of that of his hybrids, for their area of solid color was along the petal edges with the speckling in the center.
From this point on, his crosses have been made back and forth in various combinations, resulting in dozens of exquisite colors in many tones varying from pure white to deep purple and all the tints and tones in between.
Whereas the results of some crosses are unpredictable, others follow a fixed pattern.
For example, one plant that was purchased as a tuber of King of the Reds, which is small flowered but very ruffled, when bred with a plant Albert calls “Rainbow”—a red-toned, but not solid-colored flower-produces nearly 100 percent deep velvety red-flowered plants with blooms up to 5″ inches across and all beautifully ruffled.
This same King plant crossed onto purple flowers gives either red or purple-flowered offspring, also of large size and ruffled.
Growing and Selling Gloxinias
Each fresh seed crop increased his stock of plants, first by the hundreds, then to thousands.
The little greenhouse he built behind his house had to be extended. Then another section was added, and still more glass to give him space enough to grow small plants, raise more seeds, and still have ample space to propagate his choicest plants from leaf cuttings.
In his early years, he sold plants to local customers, those who heard of him by word of mouth or round-robin letters, and the small advertisements he ran in garden magazines.
Two years ago, one of the country’s largest dealers in rare bulbs became his sole retail outlet. Albert is content now to concentrate on growing and shipping the plants with the aid of his wife and a full-time helper.
Experiments and Discoveries in Gloxinia Growing
Albert’s experiments in growing gloxinias have resulted in some rather positive ideas on soil mixtures, temperatures, light intensity, and general management of the plants.
He supplements his greenhouse experiences with notes on plants grown in his home and with customer reports.
Gloxinias go through a cycle of alternate growth and rest if they are to do their best. The young plants he ships out of 2 ¼ -inch pots are usually ready for repotting into 5-inch pots.
There was a time when he used a soil mixture taken directly from a compost pile made from corn stalks, leaves, bull manure, and sods.
Bull manure being scarce, he now substitutes turkey manure from his father’s farm up the road. Without question, other mixtures that are rich, coarse in texture, and light enough to give good drainage would do.
44659 by Paul F. Frese