How do you find the wholesalers for co-op's??

I'm fairly new to this, but I'm all over the co-ops :) How do you go about finding wholesale nurseries? I'd be interested in finding the ones in my area (Atlanta and the surrounding area), learning more about them, and potentially offering a co-op in the future. Thanks

Susan McCoy

I would ask eyes or someone like that... I know there is one in gay ga. but everyone knows about winterberry

Susan,

I created this link of our suppliers for our salespeople, but you're more than welcome to use it. It's primarily young plants, and not all of them will sell direct, but it's a good place to start.

http://www.billmooreco.com/suppliers.htm

Chris

Sometimes it pays just to e-mail around. There are smaller specialty nurseries that might be happy to supply for a large co-op order at a discounted price. It's an easy way for them to unload some excess stock that they might not be able to sell otherwise.

Yep - a lot of times all it takes is asking the question: If I can place a large (you need to define large for yourself first!) can you offer me a discount? and/or free shipping?

Sometimes even those that specify "wholesale only" will still sell to indivduals if you're willing to act like a wholesale buyer (i.e., plan on bringing them a sizeable order for each plant you're buying and don't expect a LOT of handholding or help in selecting varieties.) I worked with a broker this past spring to get three flats of Brunnera, which doesn't sound like much except these plants were retailing for $12-$20, and the 3" pots were still ~$5 through the broker. The three flats (20 each) came out to $300 so it was a straightforward, easy order for the broker and grower and a great deal for the DGers who ordered.

soulgarden - there's a GREAT daylily grower in Marietta!!!

http://www.mariettagardens.com

OHmygosh!! :) WOW So glad I asked!! :) Love this great info. Thanks so much !!

Susan McCoy

OOOOOPS, That's Marietta, North Carolina!! I thought it was Marietta GA!! :) I do have some large daylilly growers in the area though. Like Alcovy Daylilly farm.

Susan McCoy

LOL! And here I've been thinking they are in GA too! Sorry about that. Have you done a Garden Watchdog search? Do you know what you type of plants you want to do a coop on? GW will help in that too.

If you have local growers, just walk up to them and ask them. But be prepared, because I've used two folks who weren't really expecting the blitz of orders.

I think they did it to humor me, thinking oh sure, I'll sell a few plants to you and your garden friends, and give you a nice discount, but I don't think they were expecting to sell as many as they did.... even though I warned them up front.

The question is, Melissa, do you think they'll do it again? :-D

Thanks for the info. I'm really quite wide open to the type of co-op I'd do. Not particular at this point! When you do approach a vender, how do you even prepare them for the quantity? I mean can you even begin to guestimate the amount if you've never done the co-op before? I am perfectly willing to do the Hosta co-op for the Gay, Ga company next year (Winterberry Farms) since I could drive down there myself and pick up any orders and just have one shipping cost from here. The only reason I'm not ordering from that co-op right now is that I thought it was to much for the plants to ship them from GA to CO and back to GA again- when I could just call them and figure out how to make a good enough deal for myslef and gardeners I know locally.

Terry, I emailed you with my phone number so that we could talk about me coming up to help you with the tree & flowering shrub co-op, if you could email me back with your number, I'd give you a call so we could talk about it :)

Susan McCoy

soulgarden - I'm in the middle of my 2nd coop. For my first I was able to contact a few previous hosts for lily bulbs to get an idea of the number they sold. However, I think as DG grows so do the size of the coops. I really recommend asking previous hosts what their experience was. Not only is it helpful in getting an idea of the size but they usually can provide LOTS of helpful tips about hosting a coop in general.

Another point with regards to size.....you can always limit the number of participants or the number of items sold. I did that on my first, but didn't get close to the max. I had set.

And finally 2 comments regarding coops in generally. Shipping cost estimates are THE hardest part to hosting a coop IMHO, so give that some serious thought. #2 do not have a gazillion varieties to choose from at least for you first coop. Keep it simple for the first one. You'll be glad you did and it boosts you confidence to do bigger ones.

Great thread, loads of helpful info for those of us who love the Coops, want to host one, but want to be fully aware of what we are committing ourselves to deliver. I see the changes in the Coops as DG grows, it is very encouraging to see folks give so much of themselves for a shared passion.

I should also have said that I've got a super-duper, mega spreadsheet that I'm very happy to share for anyone hosting a coop. On it's own it's pretty usable to a novice Excel user, but if you're good at Excel and Word then I also have a Word document that pulls the data from the Excel sheet to make "packing lists" for each participant's order. This uses the Mail Merge function in Word.

I shared the Excel & Word files with Alice when she was thinking about doing her coop (the fall bulb coop) and while she didn't use it, I think it gave her some pretty good ideas on how to set up her own system.

One thing I would DEFINITELY recommend to any first-time co-op organizer (or really anyone who wants to do one and maintain their sanity!) is to put limits in place.

Get a very narow focus on what you want to offer. For example, focus on one TYPE of plant such as daylilies or hosta; or narrow it down to a handful or a single variety if it's popular enough. Also be willing to cut off the ordering at a certain point (number of plants, number of participants.)

This isn't such a big deal with dormant bulbs and seeds, but when you're dealing with live plants, it's really important to be able to pack and ship within a very small timeframe when the order arrives. The time required to fill each order and send the boxes grows exponentially with the number of items you offer and the more participants you're dealing with. (I've had co-ops that took 4 trips to the PO because the boxes would not all fit in my car! Think about it - can you afford to run to the PO or UPS center four times? How many days will these plants survive if you have to ship some of the on a subsequent day? So think long and hard about how many boxes you're willing to handle ;o)

Now do I take my own advice? Well, sometimes ;o) It's hard to turn people away or refuse to order EVERY plant that people want. But when you stick to your guns it really is for the benefit of ALL the participants.

Well said, as always, Terry. I agree whole-heartedly.

Great info :) thanks so much. I guess it would be hard to limit the varieties- especially since I would probably be the one who wanted at least one of everything!

I am still unable to load a pic onto the internet or email, so i will study up and possible get to the point where I can use the Excel/Word mail merge for a co-op. Thanks for the offer.

Susan

Susan, I'm in the middle of my first coop. I thought I had limited mine, only ordering one size plant, one type of plant in spite of requests from multiple people for more, only sale items, and figured take orders for a week with a weekend on either end. I also expected the other hosta coop to limit the responses. I honestly expected the hardest part to be the sorting and packaging so I recruited help for that. I was wrong.

I didn't limit it enough. I have over 1000 hostas ordered. I built an excel worksheet, but I'm not great at excel, and had mistakes in that, as well as I had missed an order entirely which threw off all my totals. Cherishlife recognised the note of desperation in my "voice" and offered to help. She is currently sorting through and correcting my mistakes. She is a major blessing, I was getting crosseyed trying to figure out what was wrong. I didn't allow nearly enoough time to tally and invoice everyone.

I had actually put a lot more thought and planning into the sorting and packing part, planning it to be on a three day weekend, cleared a room to work, ordered priority mail boxes to have on hand, even extra tape and labels, so everything could be sorted, labeled, and repacked ready for shipping on Tuesday.

The biggest thing I think you can do is double the time you expect it to take. I'm learning, and with Sherris wonderful help, hopefully I won't end up with too much egg on my face.

Terre

Terre, Thanks so much for sharing that- especially, since I was considering doing the exact same company next year- to save shipping costs since I can drive down and pick them up. I don't guesss they will have any inventory after your done! LOL! Would that be okay with you or did you want to do the same company again next year? I would really need to work on a system of organized ordering like the the word/excel spreadsheat mail merge program- sounds great if you can use it!

Terre, I totally understand what your talking about when you say you were going crosseyed- I was just trying to PUT MY large order IN! on Alice's co-op and I couldn't figure out where I kept making the same mistake on a price. I finally had to just email her and ask if she could see it and sure enough, she did.

It really is a great labor of giving to host a co-op for a great number of people that you don't personally know, and propably will never personally know. (Maybe in that great garden in paradise) I'm always looking to rack up some good karma points, and hey I enjoy plants and could get some myself :) When I offered Terry my help on packing day(s), and the offer still stands- My husband said, okay, your going to drive 4 hours to help someone you've never met pack plants for people you've never met? Yes. I am :)


Susan McCoy




This message was edited Aug 19, 2004 7:28 AM

"My husband said, okay, your going to drive 4 hours to help someone you've never met pack plants for people you've never met? Yes. I am"

Sounds like my DH. They just don't get it until they've been on DG, do they? Besides, in this day and age people giving freely is such an uncommon thing that I don't think they (my DH) know how to comprehend it. LOL!


Terre - Sugar, you need to scream for help, early & loud. You'll be amazed at how many offers of help you get around here. And if you ever want to do another coop, I'm happy to be the order taker and do all the clerical stuff in the background. It's actually my favorite part of a coop. I can't stand the packing and shipping part.


On a final note, when Terry spoke of limits I think she also was trying to include cutting off a coop after a set qty of plants are ordered or at a set number of participants. These things can go crazy if we let them. Part of hosting is knowing your own limits and saying enough's enough - I need my sanity too! LOL!

Susan, if you want Winterberry next year that would be fine. I only did this because I really wanted some named hostas and they are very limited here and very pricey. There is one nursery here that takes a hosta with three leaves, one eye, sticks it in a gallon pot, and marks it $20. I would dearly love to live close to some of the marvelous places you have back east. But then I'd have to put up with the humidity, so...

I should have limited this one to less varieties, and put a top number of plants on it. I really wasn't sure it would fly at all because of Langbrs hosta coop with the bigger plants. I had doubts about making the minimum order and actually told Terry to cancel it when Langbr's started the day before mine. Terry, (enabler that she is!) assured me that she thought they were different enough they would both work, and boy was she right. I owe her one for that!

LOL! Terry knows her coops that's for sure!

Ohmygosh- I would LOVE to have an "order person" Langbr! Does your offer extend to me too? That would be for a co-op next year or sooner if there is a nursery around here that I can find and is willing to do it... I did graduate from college but I recently was doing my traded out volunteer work at a baby consignment sale and I was in charge of adding large numbers of sales figures. Big mistake. I had to do it over and over again. I really think that lots of my brain cells came right out along with the amnitotic fluid when my two boys were born. :)

I would do well with the physical organization part though. I'd enjoy the drive picking them up, sorting, packing and yes even shipping them.

Susan McCoy

Susan, there was interest in Winterberry's other plants, such as taros, but since I am not familiar with them and whether or not they would ship, I refused to include them in mine.

My offer to help with keeping track of orders and doing the clerical work is for ANYONE. All I ask is that I handle one coop at a time (at least until I can cut back my work hours -- maybe before next Spring!)

whine! I want tarros, terre!!! LOL!

They won't work for most DGers anyways...; )

I plan on taking a trip down to Winterberrry Farms at the beginning of Sept. I have called and spoken with them and have been personally invited. Maybe a tarros co-op is in the near future?

Thanks Langbr, I would feel so much more confident with a pro's help.

Susan McCoy

Not a pro here at all! Just like helpin' good friends get good deals.

I learned we are not suppose to co-op with members of the site if they own a buisness
something i didnt know before. Im not sure if that rule still applies anymore(?)

Im hoping to do another daylily co-op next spring througha local grower here in michigan.

Dori......hmmmmm? My hosta coop grower turned out to be DG member. I asked Terry about it and got the ok. I've asked Terry to drop in here and give a comment on this. I sure don't want any mis-understandings.

The way it was basically explained to me, is that I as a business can't conspire with another, or ask another DG member to have a co-op on my material. If however, a DG member approached me, and asked to do a co-op on my items, it was generally OK. Would probably be watched very closely, but in general, ok.

That's exactly what I was told with the addition of: "Are you in business with XXX or receiving a kickback, commission, or any other financial consideration for hosting this co-op? Did (they) approach you to be the "front" for offering plants to DG members? If you answered no to all those questions,
no problem

see now i learned something new today! :)

This question comes up occasionally, and maybe it's time to address it head-on, and hopefully not step on too many toes in the process. Long story short, whether or not the vendor is a member of DG is not the issue when it comes to co-ops.

Which begs the question: what IS the issue?

!) It is against the co-op rules for a company who is a member here to offer a "co-op" of items they offer to the general public (that would be a direct marketing scheme, and the AUP prohibits people from selling to DG members.)

2) It is also against the co-op rules for anyone (business owner or otherwise) to pre-buy items and re-sell them as a co-op. (A co-op is about ordering the items and quantities that the group of participants wants to purchase, not marketing items you've already purchased or have arranged to get from a wholesaler when you get an "order" from a member.)

3) It should then go without saying that a company and member should not attempt to circumvent either of these guidelines by creating the illusion of a co-op.

If you're still uncertain about whether or not you can use a particular company for a co-op purchase, then here are two questions you should ask yourself:

1) Are you receiving any type of kickback, commission, or any other financial consideration for hosting a co-op? (This would exclude bonus plants the company standardly offers for all purchases that exceed a specified dollar limit, but if a gift is offered to you BECAUSE you are hosting a co-op, then you're getting into an ethically gray area.)

2) Have you agreed to act as an agent of the company to offer their items to DG members? This may be a formal relationship or an unspoken/tacit arrangement. The underlying question is whether you are representing the best interests of the people you're ordering for, or the people you're buying from.

If you answer yes to either question, then you shouldn't proceed with using that company for a group purchase. If you have been contacted by a company to sell their goods to DG members, you should let us know.

Dave has recently begun allowing reputable companies to advertise on DG (See the advertising link above.) Companies that wish to market their goods and services to DG members can use that channel to do that. Of course, subscribers have the option to see or not see the ads.

Susan,

A couple of weeks ago I visited the home and greenhouses of a hosta grower near Atlanta who is very big in the Hosta Society. He said that there is a strong rumor that Winterberry Farms will soon be going out of business. They could be retiring or something. When you visit them, please ask about that. If you want the ee's, you might want to do that sooner than later. Like I said, it's just a rumor, but I thought you should know.

Carmen

Yay, on the ads, and I was thrilled to finally see it. I'd rather spend money supporting a venue I'm a community member of, than billion dollar companies that I have no ties with.

So everyone turn on your ads, and look at my pretty banners. Actually I only have 1 in rotation, and it was a rush job, as I and my self and another company helped Dave test this out. On second thought, wait until I have the new ones up next week. :-) The mock ups are looking pretty cool.

Chris

Wow - what great info on this thread.

Carmen, when I called and spoke with them at Winterberry Farms, she informed me that they had had a rough summer since they had to let go of a key employee due to a large amount of theft. She said that they were trying to do everything they could do to get back to full steam- and she said the beginning of Sept would work for my visit. I need to make an appointment before going and they explained that they are not at all a retail type establishment for folks buying onesies and twosies of this and that. Also, the web site lists things that are "coming soon” so I would think that they are trying to expand? I will certainly find out more when I visit them. I really would feel better about knowing them before I offer a co-op from their business.

Ironic that you should post to this thread- I saw were you were located and was going to email you about your knowledge of wholesale nurseries in this area?

Are you in the Hosta Society? I'm in the GA Native Plant Society, Marietta Gardeners Club, American Hydrangea Society and I attend meetings of The GA Perennial Plant Association- but missed last nights meeting.

How do I turn on the ads? (I can't believe I want to see them!!!) Chris please tell me what your business is and whether my money is good there!! or do I need a tax ID? I have one of those :)-

Susan McCoy

Chris, I just saw who you are, so Hello there- I can put a name with a face :) Thanks so much for posting the supplier listing. I see your offerings are extensive

Susan McCoy

Susan,

We have 2. The 1st and primary is a horticultural brokering business. That's the one that I gave you the link of the wholesale suppliers that we use. You don't need a tax ID for that one, but you have to purchase the minimums as set by the supplier. For some, it's a couple hundred cuttings etc, and for others it's in the thousands per variety.

The other is Buried Treasures. A retail e-commerce company, offering bulbs, rhizomes, and some bare root topicals, gingers, etc. That's my fun company. You don't need a tax ID there either, as it's primarily retail. I do sell wholesale as well, but it generally has to be ordered well in advance to include it with my order. Some items, I only have 100 or so per color, and others, like rain lilies, I may have 5000 per species. Needless to say, it's easy to get in on the ones I receive in the thousands, but the ones that are 100, would be primarily retail without enough notice.

BT is winding down now, with only about 4 different plants and 4-5 colors on a couple of them. The fun starts again in January. You can get to the BT site by clicking on my name. The full shopping cart should be up next week.

To see Ads, click on "preferences" at the top, and there will be 3 check boxes. It's the 3rd one down to enable seeing ads. Honestly, between the ads that are generated from Daves, and the ones that Dave gets from google, they're all very relevant. If you're searching for threads or info on gingers, those are the ads that will be generated. Not plasma TV's and the like.

Chris