Page 19 - The Hunt - Spring 2020

“She made him do it,” Ralph says of his grandmother.
Ralph made his own sacrifices. Upon graduating from Avon Grove High School in 1951 and playing with the Kennett American Legion, he could’ve had a shot
at pro baseball. But he wanted to stay
with his father and predecessor, Clarence, who died at 80 in 1984. “Business was good,” he says. “I wanted to be here. I was good to my dad, and he was good to me.”
As it turns out, mushrooms and flowers are closely related in southern Chester County’s growing history. Ralph’s family once grew both. It was convenient and made economic sense to have mushrooms under the flower- growing benches. And over time, they actually made more money than the flowers—until Avondale shut down all mushroom houses within borough limits in 1914. “Those who were moving here for cheaper housing didn’t like the smell,” says Ralph.
At Barnard’s Orchard in Kennett Square, owner-operator Lewis Barnard’s uncle, Sam, grew carnations from the 1950s through
the ’80s. “The U.S taught growers in South America how to grow flowers to help them stop growing drugs to be shipped to the U.S. ... or so the story goes,” says Lewis.
Heating-oil consumption was also an issue. In Colombia, it averages 70 degrees during the day and 50 degrees at night year-round. “It hurt everything in the flower industry,” Ralph Rosazza says of the exports. “A lot got out of the business.”
Veteran cut-flower salesman Chip Coleman lives in Wilmington, Del., and does business with Rosazza. In over 40 years, he’s seen at
least seven outlets either gobbled up by larger wholesalers or simply fall by the wayside. His own company, Sieck-Wright Floral Products
in Hightstown, N.J., closed a sister company in New Castle, Del., over a year ago. “It’s like all the mom-and-pops put out of business by Lowe’s, Home Depot, Walgreens and CVS,” he says. “But every longtime salesman has a following— just like Ralph, who’s hung on quite nicely.”
Back in the greenhouse, Ralph has been battling a ventilator for an hour. “When the sun is shining, we leave it up and open,” he says. “And when it’s cold, we shut it down tight.”
It’s a task that once took him 15 minutes. “I’m old and slow enough to call it quits, and then the boys are on their own,” he says. “I’m about the only one left as far as cut flowers go.” TH
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