| A Visit With The Violet Gallery 
The Violet Gallery is located on a 42 acre farm in central  Pennsylvania at the home of Mahlen & Brenda Petry. They are living the dream that many african violet lovers would love to share. Now that Brenda has retired from teaching and Mahlen has given up his furniture refinishing business, they are full-time into the violet business and have expanded the number of Violet Shows they attend each year. Their 2 daughters lend a hand at the shows from time to time.  Brenda and Mahlen became involved in violets in 1990 after Brenda's sister asked them to help her sell violets at several shows. They did the New England Flower Show for her and the next year she gave up the business and the Petry's took over. They both enjoy doing the shows and meeting people. At first they bought most of their inventory but about 5 years ago they began growing on a much larger scale to meet the demand from orders on their website.  The main growing area is in their remodeled barn and the building attached to it. They grow year round under lights but the biggest demand for plants is in the spring. They put down leaves in July, divide the babies in November and have about 15,000 nice starter plants ready for the spring shows in February and March. It is interesting to note that they estimate they will get 4 plantlets from each leaf, so there are a lot of leaves to be put down. Their biggest success story has been the shows. People are often amazed at the size of Violet Gallery show plants and many times will ask if they are real. Most people, after all, are used to seeing the simple plants available at their local stores and what a delight to see that african violets come in many unusual colours with variegated leaves and in varying sizes too! The Petry's enjoy the customers who return to the shows and rave about the wonderful plants that they bought from them the year before. When these customers  are telling glowing stories about the size of their violets, the crowd around the booth grows and sales go up! Brenda recalls an experience she had at a show in Boston several years ago. "I was still teaching. Mahlen always left early to set up the booth and be ready to sell. I would get up at 3 in the morning and drive to Boston, to arrive at about 11 AM to help him sell. I was driving our van loaded with plants, because we did not have a trailer at the time to haul them there. On the Mass. turnpike, about 60 miles from the show, the transmission went out on the van. I was in a bit of a panic as that was before the days of the cell phone. In about 20 minutes a state policeman came and called a towing company. About 45 minutes later the truck arrived and I asked the man to tow me to a rental company to rent another van. He said he would tow me to the show instead and that is what he did! He was such a nice fellow. I arrived about noon and we unloaded all the plants and then he took the van to a garage. Needless to say, with the cost of towing and a new transmission, we made little profit on that show but we sure had a story to tell!". An even worse experience also happened in Boston another year. "There was a horrible snow storm in Boston and even with a heated trailer, we lost several hundred plants because of the severe cold and wind. We were snowed in and the show was canceled for 1 day also. Weather always gives us the jitters in March!" all photos copyright of the Violet Gallery |
Important Announcement
