The Mum Farm, at 823 Ono Road, Jonestown, opened for its fall season at 9 a.m. Aug. 11.
“I worked with the previous owners for a number of years before,” Wyatt Schriver, now the owner of The Mum Farm, said. “And then, they were ready to sell off part of the business, so then I took over the retail part of it.”
This is Schriver’s third year owning the business.
While the business does not have any full-time employees, it employs about 10 part-time workers on busy days in the fall and about 20 to 30 part-time workers to plant the mums in the summer.
“We get the mums in June as cuttings from a greenhouse,” Schriver, a Lebanon County native, said. “We then transplant them into the pots. And then, we put them out in our fields, where they grow from June until about now.”
Throughout the summer, Schriver waters, fertilizes, and treats the mums for any bugs or fungi that may appear.
Around this time of year, The Mum Farm starts to harvest the mums in different stages: the early ones in August, the middle ones in September, and the late ones in October.
During this fall season, The Mum Farm will offer customers over 50 varieties of pumpkins. Gourds, mums, Indian corn, corn shocks, straw bales, and handmade wrought iron and wood planters will also be for sale.
“We do have a spring season where we do vegetable plants and spring annuals as well,” Schriver said. “We have a couple other local handmade things we’ll get in from time to time, but for the most part [in the fall], the main things are the mums and pumpkins.”
The Mum Farm is open to customers Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The business is closed Sundays, except for the busy season.
“We are open Sundays during peak season from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.,” Schriver said. “Usually it’s the last three weeks of September and first two weeks of October that we’re open. About five weeks out the year we’re open Sundays.”
The fall season typically closes after Oct. 31.
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