Best Way to Sell Plants???

Hi all; as I love growing things from seed so much I inevitably end up with plenty of stock.....it's always nice to sell a few to put some pennies in the pot to go back in to keeping the garden ticking over; a nice cycle :thumb:

Now I have sold some more unusal stuff on Ebay at good prices; cannas & orange tree seedlings being two big sellers, but what would everyone else recommend as a good way of selling plants?

We've tried carboot sales and I could sell everything, but the problem is people want stuff for next to nothing; I'm not greedy and not after making huge profits, but I know the plants I was selling were worth what I was asking and still a reasonable price.

I don't sell absolutely everything as I also donate some things to neighbours and other local gardeners.

Any advice will be much appreciated...:thumb:

 

Is there somewhere that you can rent to set up a little retail nursery?

 

Have you thought of a local Farmers market or fresh produce stall at a Church Bazaar ? i buy from events like these and are always happy with buying from them.
Hope it goes well for you.

 

At church bazaars the money quite rightly goes to the church! I agree with Dai that people would be happy to pay higher prices at what they saw as a 'proper' retail outlet than at a car boot sale.

 

What a nice initiative!

 

Depends where you live

We live out in the country

Many roadside stalls set up with produce and an honesty box
Takes good money and sometimes people pay more as they do not take change out of the box

Then some scrote pulls up in the car takes the produce and the honesty box :-(

Again at Pitlochry (The Hermitage) a well set out woodland nature walk, with a donations box on the style
Box gone broken off the style

If you have some cash donate
If you have no cash enjoy the walk
Then some scrote takes it all for his cans of lager, which is sad as it costs a lot in fuel just to drive out to the magic place, So WHY did they bother

What a world we have today, though in reality it has always been the same
even in the 50's we had spivs then

Jack McH

 

wow is that REALLY allowed?
People do that a lot in Eastern Europw where I'm from, you get lots and lots of stalls along busy roads (not motorways).
I'd be wary of doing this here, the UK seems to be so overly regulated!
What if a neighbour or a passer by rings the police... or the council...

 

I looked into that once, the fees for setting up a stall are frankly prohibitive. Could be in the region of £40-60 a day, depending weekday or weekend. Probably depends a lot on the part of the UK/area as well tho.
Also you need to have tonnes of certificates, be registered self-employed, etc. etc. The particular market I was looking at also said perishable products can't be sold on a one-off basis, needs to be a regular stall. Seedlings would prob not be seen as perishable, whereas stuff like fruit and veg will.

Not worth the trouble.

Oh the good old days when things were informal...

 

Many Thanks for the replies; I think my best option may be to have a stall on our local 'flea' market when I've got enough plants together to make it worthwhile.

I love the idea of honesty boxes for fruit and veg, but in all "honesty" the box wouldn't last 5 minutes round here before the local yobs had off with it for the booze or the like...

Renting a small place for a retail nursery is a great idea but although I have plenty of excess plants I don't have that many, so wouldn't be worth the outlay. It is though perhaps something that I could put on the 'back-burner' as a future project??

Having a stall on the front is a possibilty, I have seen plenty of people round here doing just that with non-plant things and also people have garage sales so I can only assume initially that it's ok with the local council. I'd have to check if I did that..

 

ebay is the best place to sell IMHO .... however, you need how to use ebay pulse so as to get the most views of your items


also, look at growing rare exotic plants that will do well in conservatories aswell as in most gardens .... I would start with plants that are highly fragrant there is always a huge market for these ... examples as :

night blooming jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum) ... regarded by many as the most fragrant plant in the world .... will do well in a conservatory

flowering tobacco, (nicotiana sp)

Osmanthus fragrans

Lonicera fragrantissima

Chimonanthus praecox

Elaeagnus pungens

Gardenia jasminoides

there are many more .... I would also look at selling Heuchera .... some garden centres are selling small ones at over a tenner, and these are very versatile and look good throughout the year especially when you plant different colours ....

I have ordered a few and will be planting them this weekend .... have ordered 2- berry smoothie, and 4 electric lime .... will plant them in 2 semi-shade spots .... (1 berry smoothie with 2 electric lime)... colours contrast nicely together

http://cdn.blossomswap.com/8/8b/800x600px-LL-B002YB3SRA-51wT8O5GudL.jpg

http://www.gardencrossings.com/_ccLib/image/plants/DETA-1559.jpg

 

We put a stall in the front garden with a sign plants for sale, we sell plants, cut flowers from the plot and veg that is surplus that I can't store, courgettes, cucumbers and the like.



We don't make a fortune, between £10 and £50 a day but we don't get a huge amount of passing traffic but people are getting to know us, at first we didn't sell anything but it has been steadily growing.

We just have a box outside and mostly people are honest and pay for the stuff, I only know of one time (a particularly nice hanging basket) that anyone took stuff without paying.

Mrs Chopper

 

Chopper that's fantastic, if only I lived somewhere where that would be a viable option - the honesty box more than anything; it's a nice small town here don't get me wrong and I know most of the people are respectable and honest people but I could virtually guarentee that some local yob would have off with it as soon as there would be any amount in it.......sad but an all too realistic reflection of today's society in a lot of towns these days - always the minority that spoil for it for others, it happens with lots of things.

That said it may be worth a go with some excees veg that needs to be shifted because I can't store it, just to see how it goes...:thumb:

 

Some people say please post money through the letter box round here. I have no doubt that sooner or later I will loose a days takings, but I have to say Mr Chopper is a great deterent to any would be thieves, lol.

Mrs Chopper

 

Where I live - 'out in the sticks' - whatever passing trade there might be would be negated by the narrow lanes leaving nowhere for people to stop their cars.

However, I have noticed that some people put up a neat (hand) painted 'Home Grown Plant [and/or] Produce. Please Park on drive' sign, and seemed to do quite well - although one neighbour who was working in his front garden and whose sign read 'Tomatoe Plant Sale' complained to me that several people had stopped merely to point out his spelling mistake!