Focus on Coop Suppliers:
Bill Kolber, the Pansy Man 

by Suzanne Fisher

Gardeners all around the our region are beginning the annual ritual of seeding and digging and planting, but Bill Kolber’s growing season has been under way for the past six months. In his greenhouses young pansy plants of all different sizes are filling the shelves with their elliptical green leaves. They began life around the end of last October when they were first seeded into flats of soil cells no larger than your thumb, and have been transplanted several times and moved to the cooler parts of the greenhouses during the winter until they were put into six packs and began to flower. Kolber says that every gardener prefers to buy plants with blossoms, and when you see them in bloom you immediately understand why. En masse in the greenhouse, the wide expanse of brilliant yellows, delicate creams fading into blues, vivid purples and creamy oranges are absolutely intoxicating after a winter of grey and brown outside.

Bill Kolber is famous for his pansies in the Albany area. He began growing pansies in 1955 while his family was still farming on Whitehall Road (back when it was a dirt-and-gravel road where horses pulled stuck autos out of the mud). After he graduated from high school in 1948, Kolber first worked with his family, vegetable farmers who found it harder to make a living as retailers began using buyers who were focused more on price than quality.

At that time, flats of plants were not sold to the public. (Kolber remembers seeing plants dug from a bed and laid into newspaper for their ride home.) In the mid-1950s, when plant packs became available, he decided to try growing plants for gardens instead of vegetables for the table — and he hasn’t stopped since.

In 1980 he moved to his current farm in Selkirk, which now includes five large and very productive greenhouses were he grows for the Menands Regional Wholesale Market — and where our produce manager Gayle Anderson (Kolber’s “steadiest customer”) purchases flats of his plants for Honest Weight. Beginning in the spring, he also sells garden products, plants and farm-grown produce at his farm store. Although he once sold pansies to the city of Albany, Kolber now sells only to other retailers and his own customers, some of whom have followed him all the way from Albany to buy his pansies and other plants. He heats his greenhouses minimally because pansies can stand the cold — they actually freeze solid during the night, defrost and keep on growing. This makes them very hardy and resilient come planting time. In fact, in the right location, they have been known to winter-over their second winter as well. The pansies one can purchase from big box retailers are, in contrast, grown in well-heated greenhouses and are therefore more tender and less vigorous.

Environmental factors are not the only reasons Kolber’s pansies thrive in the cold. He chooses hybrids that are known for withstanding both heat and cold. He also selects ansy varieties whose colors and patterns his customers like.

Kolber’s Pansies at the Coop

Honest Weight carries three types of pansies from Kolber’s Farm, as well as several other plants. He offers the Origami Columbine, a perennial that blooms the first year and survives more than two years; and Osteospermum, a type of daisy with a blue eye surrounded by white or shades of pink petals. He also grows Wave petunias, which cascade blossoms down their vines in hanging baskets; and parsley and rosemary, both of which are difficult for home gardeners to start. This year Kolber is starting a new dayneutral strawberry, Fresco, which is good for both decoration and eating, because it bears pink blossoms followed by big berries. Kolber’s Farm is not organic, but he uses mostly insecticidal soaps to keep down aphids, reserving pesticides for emergency situations. Even then, he uses the pesticides at half strength. Pests are not a big problem in his greenhouses, where the thermostat is always set at 35°F. He uses a dilute liquid fertilizer on the pansies only a couple of times before planting, which slows their growth and makes them sturdier.

Even if you are not a die-hard gardener, check out the pansy selection at Honest Weight this spring. Ask Gayle if you want to know more about what she has from Kolber’s Farm. You are sure to get locally produced, beautiful and vigorous plants for your baskets, boxes or beds. You may find yourself taking part in this Albany tradition for years to come!

Back to index

CoopScoop Home
CoopScoop Archives
Behind the Scoop
Guidelines for Article
     Submission