Mums on the Porch, 80,000 Poinsettias in the Greenhouse: Bob's Market Takes Gallipolis From Fall to Christmas

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GALLIPOLIS — The Gallipolis store on Jenkins Lane is still full-on fall, and the Christmas crop has been growing since June. That is the season at Bob’s Market and Greenhouses, where the porch out front and the greenhouse out back are always one holiday ahead.

Right now the draw is mums: the 9-inch pots are $6.99 each or five for $30, and select fall decor is a third off. John Morgan of Bob’s says locals tend to decorate in layers. “Mums and pumpkins carry the porch through Thanksgiving, and then evergreen wreaths and poinsettias come in for Christmas,” he said. Some shoppers hold the autumn line until the turkey is gone; others, he admits, already have the tree up. For the table itself, the store points cooks to its Corena’s Kitchen recipe series.

A greenhouse filled with red poinsettias at Bob's Market — About 80,000 poinsettias will grow and ship from Bob’s this year. (Photo courtesy of Bob’s Market and Greenhouses)

The poinsettias are the real production. Bob’s starts with unrooted cuttings in late June and early July, roots them under mist, then pots and spaces them on drip irrigation in the Mason greenhouses, where the family has been growing under roof since 1970. Bob’s ranks among the top ten young plant producers in the country. The trick, Morgan says, is darkness: starting the first day of fall, poinsettias decide when to bloom based on how long their nights are, so for seven to nine weeks the greenhouse goes dark at sundown with no artificial light at all. “Patience, and a lot of darkness,” he said. This year the crew will grow and ship about 80,000 poinsettias, mostly traditional red, then white, pink, and marbled, each finished with a foil pot cover and a protective sleeve before it ships.

Volunteers in pink shirts holding a Gallipolis in Bloom Planting Day banner in City Park — Planting day in City Park with Gallipolis in Bloom volunteers. (Photo courtesy of Bob’s Market and Greenhouses)

Bob’s is also the crew behind the flowers that dress up downtown. Gallipolis in Bloom started in 2006, and Morgan is quick to hand the credit to Lori Kelly, a retail manager who also supervises the seeding crew: she has been the heart of the company’s America in Bloom work in Gallipolis and surrounding Ohio Valley towns. The town has the honors to show for it: a national floral displays award in 2006, its population category win in 2011, and the 2017 Small Cities Championship. Next up is Gallipolis in Lights, when City Park glows from November 25 to January 1, built by community volunteers. “None of it happens without the whole community,” Morgan said. “It takes volunteers, merchants, the city and neighbors all pitching in.”

Rows of pansies in yellow, white and purple growing in a greenhouse — Fall pansies on the benches. Plant them right and they come back in March. (Photo courtesy of Bob’s Market and Greenhouses)

And the question he hears on every fall tour: will my pansies come back next year? “They will! Pansies are no pansies!” Plant them in soil that drains well, because it is usually ice around the roots, not the cold, that heaves the root ball out of the ground. Give them a spot sheltered from winter wind. They will die back and sleep through the coldest weeks, survive temperatures well below zero, perk back up in early March, and bloom until May heat stretches them out. That is when Bob’s will happily sell you petunias.

Bob’s Market and Greenhouses, Gallipolis store, is at 1 Jenkins Lane.

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