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growing plants for re sale?

2K views 23 replies 12 participants last post by  sisterpine 
#1 ·
Greetings from southwest montana! I am considering growing landscape plants, veg starts and flower starts for re sale in the spring up here. Any one do that? And do you know if I could buy just a couple of landscape plants and then start cuttings from them? ;that would be the way to go I imagine...
 
#2 ·
Have you looked at this:

http://www.freeplants.com/index.htm

Seems like a good idea to me. Do you have a good market close by? Sometimes nurseries in a city will buy plants wholesale from local growers. You might want to check on that too.
 
#4 ·
Yes i was thinking about farmers markets in the spring time also! another thing , the area we live in has very few (none) good nurserys, and a few rotten ones. I have visited all of them the past couple of years and found the plants to be very limited etc. So I thought maybe I would grow montana native perennials and shrubs as well as some spring flower and veg starts. DH just this minute got home from his trip so I will talk to him about the prospects in a day or so, got to catch him in a good mood since i need him to volunteer to do some labor to make this work! Baking him a cake right now LOL!
 
#7 ·
how very cool! now i think i can get excited about this as a way to earn enough money to pay for a few things like more trees etc around the farm! may take a year or two to get this going but i sure am gonna work on it. also i have a sometimes neighbor with a much bigger green house so i am gonna see if she wants to join in the venture. she was saying how she would like a small business to help after they get retired!
 
#9 ·
I think Johnney's carries bulk seeds at a reasonable price. However, if you will start some plants now (shouldn't be a prob in NC should it?) you can take cuttings and start a ton of plants off them that will be sturdier and prob less work than starting a bazillion seedlings. Particularly works if you have a plant that has produced well in your area and tastes really good. This is the method that many commercial greenhouse growers use with tomatoes.
 
#10 ·
Kathleen, I have started a small backyard nursery using the Freeplants template. I figured that if Mike was able to pay off his mortgage, his plan just may work, so I am trying to do it his way. My only problem is that it is taking me longer than I like to get the mist beds set up. A robotic DH would come in handy, although it would need an off button.

Our yard has no named plants in it, so I had to send for some. I ordered about $600 worth of plants from Spring Meadows Nursery, potted these up in 1 qt pots and will winter them over in my nursery beds. In spring, I will sell some of these plants, and keep others for the cuttings. Those will get potted up the next spring. I am ordering more plants for then also. Then you have a revolving set of chores each of which covers about 3 years from start to finish. After 2005, I should be starting all my own plants and not buying any.

You would need to pay some attention to additional protection for your winters. I can see you putting in a lot of heated hoophouses. I don't see how you could do much without them. Once you get started, you can do mail order, wholesaling, farmer's markets, and maybe make some trips to Misoula from tiime to time. Get the Raintree catalog. They have a great variety of fruit trees and grafting possibilities. You can do this, but it will take a few years, but I would encourage you to follow your bliss. I have an outdoor mist bed, and a heated one in the GH. I would definitely encourage doing the native perennials and plant starts to start some cash coming in.

I have always been interested in some kind of plant propagation. I can't even remember being without something rooting in a jelly jar or whatever. To me, it is just magical! The second reason I chose this to focus on is that once it is set up, it is not too physically demanding. I can envision working on this for the next 10 years or so. I am starting fairly small, and the 2nd girl can grow it to whatever size she wants. All the huge old wholesale houses started this way.

Are you in the Bitteroot area? That's what I visualize. Color me bright green!

Sandi
 
#13 ·
sandi: i wish (kind of) that i was in the bitterroots! i am south and east of there about a hundred miles. so our winters can be pretty fierce! nearest towns of any size are butte, anaconda and deer lodge. i am thinking that i could grow montana perennials so they would not mind being under snow and very cold in the winter. then heating my green house early in the spring to start veggies and flowers for summer. DH is "thinking" about letting me build a second green house (like i was gonna ask lol). I have 3 apple, 2 pear, 2 cherry , 2 plum trees due to arrive the end of October for fall planting to begin my orchard. the 24 raspberry plants will not arrive till early spring. these are all zone 3-4 plants and will do well up here as we are zone 3-5. i am pretty sure this is what i am gonna do as i have always been a gardener and see no reason not to make some money doing what i love! thanks for the information! kathleen
 
#14 ·
i think you are right that it would work to plant now in NC, however here in the mountains of MT we are a bit more limited in growing season! I can plant the fruit trees and could even get some perennials going if i can find some or get some shipped. if i heat the one green house i have they would be ready for spring and for taking cuttings from! kathleen
 
#15 ·
sisterpine said:
Greetings from southwest montana! I am considering growing landscape plants, veg starts and flower starts for re sale in the spring up here. Any one do that? And do you know if I could buy just a couple of landscape plants and then start cuttings from them? ;that would be the way to go I imagine...

We have a Neighborhood Plant Exchange/Craft Sale in town every year. Many people bring in flats they've started and have great success selling them. A couple of "professional" nurseries show up for the event too.

If you don't have such a sale in your area, what would it take for you to start one?

Pony!
 
#16 ·
Pony said:
We have a Neighborhood Plant Exchange/Craft Sale in town every year. Many people bring in flats they've started and have great success selling them. A couple of "professional" nurseries show up for the event too.

If you don't have such a sale in your area, what would it take for you to start one?

Pony!
spring meadows is an excellant catalogue cause it tells you how long it takes to grow each plant to a marketable size. and its free. perennials are a better choice than nursery stock mainly because you can buy them in cell packs and 2.5" pots and repot them into qts or gallons and sell them in 60 days for nice profit. lets assume you buy cell paks of goldsturm daisies...black eyed susans for $1.00 each you'll have to buy them by the flat...so $48.00. you pot them up to gallons and wholesale them to a nursery in 45 to 60 days for $4.00 each.do the math. you can turn 100 into 400 in two months. of course you'll need pots, soil, water,etc. you can build an unheated hoophouse for $500. 10'w x 24'L from Hoophouse out of Yarmouth, Maine. You could also do it with pvc pipe, really cheaply-plywood ends and 5 mil plastic. Alot of nursery stock takes 2 years to grow from cell paks to one gallon size and you'll probably make about $4.00 on them too.perennials can also be divided or started from seed or cuttings, and they turn over faster in a retail store than nursery stock. many ordinary folks become millionaires selling wholesale to nurseries. check in the back of trade mags like american nurseryman for dealers of perennial plugs. Everyone who is into homesteading should be supplying plants to city folks.We have the desire, time, and dirt, and they have the money. Lets make them happy :cool:
 
#17 ·
I used to work at a plant farm and am thinking of starting my own plant farm selling herbs in 3.25" pots. I live in a town that is filled with plant farms. They have routes that sell to nurseries. They make a very profitable living. Most of the plant farms here use jolly farmer. Their web address is jollyfarmer.com. You can buy plugs and cuttings of all kinds of plants. Here in Texas, a person has to have a growers license in order to grow potted plants. And if you plan on using pesticides, you will need a license for that as well. Something for you to check on.
 
#18 ·
treeguy said:
Everyone who is into homesteading should be supplying plants to city folks.We have the desire, time, and dirt, and they have the money. Lets make them happy :cool:
I am SO looking into your advice. It makes perfect sense to me, and seems a very practical way to utilize the resources we have to provide a product that will allow us to do what we like to do -- live off the land and play in the dirt!

I am now a woman on a mission -- LOOK OUT, WORLD!!!

Pony!
 
#19 ·
I haven't ordered from them yet but http://www.waltersnursery.com has daylily, hosta, other flower, Mary Washingon asparagus, rhubarb and tree starts at very reasonable prices. I e-mailed and Mary verified they don't require wholesale but just a 10 plant per variety minimum. Also, they take Visa and Master Card. Last time I checked, their PDF file wasn't current; the Excel one is. I had problems viewing it without downloading 1st.

katy
 
#22 ·
Violation of the patent law is a strict liability tort, which means it makes no difference whether the accused intended to infringe the patent or not.

Keep in mind most cultivars have a plant patent and propagation by those that do not hold the patent is illegal. The period of the patent is typically 20 years.

Its the same idea as making CD copies of Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying" and selling them at the flea market. Sounds like a super idea, except its against the law.
 
#23 ·
sisterpine said:
Hi Again! In looking at spring meadows information it seems the minimum order is $600.00 is this what you have found? that is a very large number of plants to arrive at one time! Kathleen
It IS a large # plants to pot at one time, but they do come in pots in excellent condition and if watered will weather a week or more. I learned to have the potting soil and 2 Qt pots ready and just did it. I am using Pro-Mix BX with Fungicide for potting. Took me longer than I expected, but I now have many wonderful plants for my yard and about a thousand small plants that will become my first sale this spring. See if your neighbor would split an order.

S.M. will ship in the spring, but like to get the order as soon as possible. In my zone I am storing all my plants in the pots in my nursery beds which are on the south side of our house. I am raking all our leaves and just piling them in. Mouse bait goes in first. Sometime around March, I will remove most of the leaves and get those babies growing. Hold the sale anytime after April 1, but before May 30. I will use the ad that Mike of Freeplants does. Why mess with success? Any plants that do not sell will get potted up in the next size pot and we'll try again in the fall at a higher price. I did not get to the perennial starts this fall, but will see what spring brings. I have to really watch it that I don't overload and then freeze into inaction.

I love the idea of growing native perennials for you. Experiment a little and find what works best for you, and do have fun.

Sandi
 
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