Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Holiday Cacti General Discussion Part #3, 1 by JBerger

JBerger wrote:
Thank you Judy and Gita great quick work. Just finished shipping plants and decided to sit down and go over some posts prior to getting back to work again. On my way home from the Post Office I stopped at my neighbors Farm Market for my Monday Morning visit. She was telling me last year she tried to buy Christmas Cactus from the wholesaler and they had none. I do not have enough of the older plants left to sell her any either.

The regular shopper for Christmas Cactus at this time of year wants a plant like you can get at HD or at the bigger chain stores..........already blooming and bigger. They still want to pay the cheapest price possible, so you can understand why the local small scale wholesalers do not put the time and money into CC or even poinsettias anymore because when you have Acme, Walmart, Lowes and HD to compete with, it just does not pay anymore.
It is so sad so many small independent businesses have been put out of business by the bigger stores. Same thing happened to the small Craft Shops and Fabric Shops. A.C. Moore and the bigger stores completely outprice them all. Enough of the business end of the CC . I have not had a problem selling my plants because I advertise them as starter plants and people do not expect them to be any bigger. I sell them at a good price and at least I make room in the GH for others. I do not make any money but I have a good time. If I had to do this for a living, I would be homeless. LOL

I wanted you to see this shot of the Yellow Zygo Cactus that I have. Yellow is a difficult color to find. I got mine at Hirts. This is the first year I have a few yellow starters to sell. This stock plant is just getting to be a real beauty. It is three years old now.

See you later. Must get busy.