Small Business for New Car

My 16 YO daughter wants to buy a jeep, so she's been working all summer and really doing a good job saving her money. But, she only has $1500. She would like to sell plants this spring and wants to buy them through our co-ops. I can see doing the cannas, and I think she'd do well with some of the twig dogwoods and snowball viburnums as well. So, three questions:

Which plants on the tree/shrub co-op would be great sellars?

How hard is it to overwinter these starts if we don't have a greenhouse?

Is there anyone who has done something like this who could give us some advice on the actual selling? I thought about having weekend plants sales, and selling through our Farmers Market Bulletin that goes all over Georgia. Any more ideas?

The only added plants she'd be selling is rooted cuttings from the brugs we have. Thanks for all your help.

Carmen

pinns2006 - can't help you with your question but i just wanted to congratulate your daughter for the way she is going about earning her own money. you should be very proud of her.

Thank you, Herbie. I am very proud of her. She's a Girl Scout and has learned many ways to be a leader, so this is right up her alley. She knows she can do it, she just needs help in direction here and there.

The Market Growers Forum might be a good place to put this too, perhaps Dave or Terry can move it for you.

I do a small/seasonal sideline in plants but in England so as to what will and won't sell in your part of the world I don't know. I do know that for a tiny enterprize it takes an awful lot of my time!

Buying in from wholsale nurseries is fine if you've got a reasonable market for the plants and can set a realistic price on them, I found one of the hardest things was putting a price on them that gave me even a small return as well as remaining competative. If you're going to overwinter plants there are more costs involved, water and losses for starters! Let the big chaps do the winter growing and buy them early in late winter/spring as you've no greenhouse, the companies will often have slightly larger plants than home grown.

Who is at your local market? How many ornamental plant sellers are there? What are they selling and at what prices? What are the alternative markets? What kind of transport do you have, will it carry the amount of plants you need to take to a market? For mail order, are you geared up for packing a large amount of plants? What kind of discounts can you find for packaging, posting costs with local couriers? Are there shops that might buy wholesale from you?

pins (loved the story about your name!)... Wish I could offer advice.

I do know from reading the Market Growers Forum for a couple years now, that plants that sell best are those that are unusual, scarce, and/or hard-to-find in the sales area.

Take any list of co-op plants and go to Pikes, etc. and see which of those they carry, and at what prices.

Baa has some very good suggestions and questions that you need to ask yourself.

Whatever you do, don't carry the same plants that the big-box stores (Home Depot, Lowe's, etc.) carry at such cheap prices in the spring - you can't compete with them and expect to make a profit.

Are you going to be competing with the co-op, too, and selling the same plants that they sell, but at higher prices? Probably a no-win situation, I'm afraid.

That said, I carry many, many plants over the winter that I have in pots and that have not been planted in the garden.

You don't need a greenhouse if the plants' are winter hardy, and in-fact, the plants' need a winter dormancy and should remain outside through the winter.

You will need to protect the root systems in one of two ways: either sink the pots up to their rims into the ground over the winter (this is what I do) or you need to set the pots in an area and pile mulch around the pots to protect the root systems (many plants' roots are not as hardy as the stem portion of the plant). You should also protect the plants with chicken wire or some other fencing to keep the bunnies and other critters from eating the stems during the winter. This protection needs to be done so there is good drainage in the location that you choose. Don't even attempt this if water pools in the area during the spring.

If you usually get 3' of snow during the winter, then get 4' or 5' chicken wire to protect the plants. I have had dwarf conifers eaten because we received so much snow that the bunnies just walked on top of the snow and got to the plants because the fence wasn't high enough. )c:

Before jumping into this you might want to purchase a few plants and carry them over the winter and see how they do. Have a small sale next spring and see what sells and what doesn't and to see if anyone asks for a particular plant or plants.

For this to be successful, you will need to have plants that are somewhat unusual, but not so unusual that no one has ever heard of them before.
Good luck,
Mike

Treelover3

"For this to be successful, you will need to have plants that are somewhat unusual, but not so unusual that no one has ever heard of them before."

I was discussing this very same thing with friends just the other day. I found that anything that has been in a magazine or on TV in the last 6 months that is slightly different sell like hot cakes and for (almost) any price but some that are hardly known, barely make the asking price and are generally viewed with deep suspicion. I've had no end of trouble selling a white cultivar of Allium schoenoprasum which is truely a choice little chap! They now live in the garden and I don't even try.

I met a chap who has just started up a small business selling at the flea markets, he had Gladiolus papillo for sale and in flower on his stall. We got talking and he told me people were looking but were almost frightened of something new to them. I can sympathise, even the more general nurseries struggle with such things, the only places you can really sell these kinds of things are at organised plant fairs or specialist nurseries where people have gone specifically to search for something different for their garden.

This has been great advice from everyone. I really do appreciate it. The only nursery near us is Pike's, which specializes in the mundane. Anything slightly unusual is usually $8 for a quart size. I will definitely start watching the Market Growers forum and see what happens there, in addition to re-reading my gardening magazines to see what is featured there.

Thanks all!

Baa - thanks for that... I wouldn't countenance doing it from here (NI) anyway, because of the short growing season, and the fact that I have no space.
If I do it, I would do it from France where I have loads of space and a long growing season, selling via open markets and a web site.
I have no notion what the regulations are in the US (about growing plants for sale), but I would guess that below a certain capacity they are virtually non-existent. This might explain why the EU will have a way to go before its economy is as successful as that in the US....
But I still prefer to live here...