Hanging baskets and plant appearances

I make hanging baskets for sale to people I know and while doing so I made my Mom 4 out of the plants I had left over.

Last year it seemed that all the hanging baskets I saw were having a bad time and didn't make any other than for Mom, but this year they are truly colourful. The strange thing is (and I'm not complaining here), although all the plants are growing really well we seem to have aquired snapdragons (antirrhinum) in all 4 of them. The last time I grew snapdragons (I do all of Mom's garden) was 3 years ago. The compost was new, as were the linings, the only thing I can think of is that the plants I bought for the baskets had seeds of snapdragons in them. Its too early for them to seed now and no seedlings were showing in the pots I bought, so even that is a bit of a mystery.

Anyone else had some 'gratis' plants this year?

Well i grow the same snapdragons every year they are perennials you know so i bring them to overwinter inside the greenhouse or conservatory. I save all my surfinias as i take cuttings from them just like half-hardy geraniums and fuschias.
I have got quite a few hanging baskets up besides the flower pouches, the success of baskets is stuffing it full of plants.
I will do this full time when i retire, really looking forward to growing to sell as now i give a lot of my plants away.

I'm sure you will do well with a small nursery when you retire.

I always buy the basket plants because:

1) I need space in the greenhouse for the more unusual plants and seedlings. As you know I collect a lot of different species and to me that is my real interest, the baskets and plant sales are just my way of funding my hobby. I also trade quite a bit which helps track down the seeds I really want. I make sure I never run it as a business so I don't interest the taxman. You could say I'm not really a gardener, just a plant collector since I'm far too lazy to dig anything more than a planting hole LOL.

2) I undercut the garden centres by a long shot (usually 50%) and still make decent money from them even including my petrol and time.

3) We have a great local nursery who not only have the equipment and expertise in bedding and basket plants (which is what they specialise in) they also sell at an unusually cheap price, certainly nothing like the amount they cost in the DIY stores. It would cost me over 300% more per plant were I to take cuttings/sow seeds for baskets mainly due to the labour involved. No, I'll leave it to those who can do it at wholesale prices.

Last year all the neighbours baskets were dying within a month and since I was working a 7 day week I neither had the time nor the inclination to do any extra work. I almost lost interest in the garden as I saw it as a job, which is the only reason I haven't gone into a full time business with it.