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- New Jersey Business Grows
with Hot Peppers by Mail Order
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- By Karen Gentry
Managing Editor
- Cross Country Nurseries has found a marketing niche by capitalizing on America’s shift to spicier foods and interest in hot peppers. The Rosemont, N.J. business sells chile and sweet pepper plants by mail order worldwide.
Husband and wife team Janie Lamson and Fernando Villegas currently sell more than 440 varieties of pepper plants to a growing number of “chile heads” and hobby gardeners.
The largest amount of customers for Cross Country Nurseries come from California, Texas, Florida and Illinois. Lamson said most customers want the habanero peppers and are looking for very hot peppers.
“People are cooking more with ethnic recipes,” said Lamson. “I think people get our plants and they love the peppers that are produced,” she said.
The couple has put a lot of time into a well-crafted Web site, located at www.chileplants.com, with high quality, four-color photographs which attracts customers, according to Lamson.
“We put a lot into the Web site,” said Lamson, who has been dubbed the “chile goddess.” She estimates over 90% of their customers from the Web site found the site through surfing the Internet. The extensive site includes a photo gallery of varieties as well as educational information on how to grow peppers and pictures of what the plants look like before they’re shipped.
Lamson believes they have the world’s largest selection of chile and sweet pepper plants available by mail order and at their nursery. They depend on the Web site and a catalog for most of the advertising although they do place ads in three magazines - Organic Gardening, Chile Pepper and Fiery Foods.
The plants are shipped in 2 1/2-inch pots that are 3 1/2-inches deep. Six plants fit into a sleeve and two or four sleeves fits into a box. Minimum orders are 12 plants, according to Lamson.
The seeds for the pepper plants are sown in mid-January in a basement under lights with heating mats. Approximately three weeks later they’re pulled out of the basement and put into a greenhouse for about a week. Seven of their greenhouses are chile houses, hoophouses with double poly covers heated by propane.
They irrigate through small ponds in each of their greenhouses that are fed by larger outside ponds. Lamson said the indoor ponds supply greenhouse-warmed water to the young seedlings, and act as solar heat sinks to help conserve heat during the night.
At about four weeks the plants are transplanted into 2 1/2-inch pots. Lamson said they start shipping plants in April, eight to 10 weeks after the seeds are sown. They ship April through June.
“I can’t get them out earlier than April. They don’t grow as quickly early on in the season,” said Lamson.
Although Cross Country Nurseries is not certified organic they fertilize with fish emulsion and seaweed, and use beneficial insects in the greenhouse to control aphids, thrips, fungus gnats and whiteflies.
Lamson and Villegas got started growing peppers when Lamson’s brother gave her six packets of chile peppers seeds to plant in 1993. Before that they had been growing perennial flowers and landscaping plants for wholesale and retail.
“They were easy to grow and fun to grow,” said Lamson about the peppers. She said she has always been impressed with the beauty of the pepper plants and noted they have sold some peppers to Disney World as ornamental plants.
Originally they sold the plants through their nursery but as they grew they started getting phone calls to purchase their plants. Villegas designed new packaging in 1997 and they began shipping nationwide.
- For more information call (908) 996-4646 or visit www.chileplants.com
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