Vegetable growers who sell produce at farmers' markets, at roadside stands, to restaurants and to local supermarkets may find that they can bring in additional income by adding fresh cut flowers to the inventory of products they sell.

A wildflower known in certain western states as Prairie Gentian has fallen into the hands of plant breeders to become a really hot new cut flower species - lisianthus. This flower is beautiful. The blooms are graceful and refined. They resemble rose buds on long sturdy stems. I

In August of 2005, the Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the Interior enacted a new regulation that affects persons who dig wild ginseng roots and for persons who buy wild ginseng roots in Virginia. The new law requires wild roots of American ginseng, Panax quinquefolius, to be 10 years of age or older to be exported from Virginia.

Seedless and seeded watermelons can be grown without the use of agricultural chemicals, for organic markets. Compared to many other fruit and vegetable crops, watermelons are not heavily attacked by either insects or diseases.

American ginseng (Panax quinquefolium, Araliaceae family) is a familiar plant to many people in the Southern Appalachian region. For several generations, “digging sang” has been an enjoyable and profitable activity for many mountain people.

Beginning cut flower growers, dazzled by brilliant photographs, often order dahlia tubers from bulb company catalogs for Spring planting. The hopeful grower normally pays five or six dollars per plant and either receives one single tuber or a small clump of tubers that resemble little brown yams. The grower carefully plants the tubers six inches deep in early May in full sun and hopes for the best.

Commercial producers of field-grown flower cut flowers generally have a wide selection of crops to sell in April, May and June. Many species of annual and especially perennial cut flowers bloom during these three months. A group of plants that may offer new opportunities for sales of cut flowers during mid-summer are summer-flowering bulbs.