Small scale plant nursery?

Hi all

We all have a love for gardening but anyone thought of making this hobby into a small scale business??

I've recently visited several nurseries and most of them were very small scale. Garden size plot with a couple of poly tunnels, usually specialising in a very few plant or even just 1 species, on top of providing some bedding plants. 1 was showing at chelsea this year and all they had was a poly tunnel, and an average garden size plot.

I love fuchsias, hardy geraniums, aquilegias trees, but is it possible to turn this love in to a small business??

Any advice??

 

Hi Rob.... I visit on a regular basis a very small bungalow who sell plants for a great price... I'm not sure they are getting rich selling them but I think they just get enough money to do the same the following year.

They have a great selection and to be honest I always give them more than what the bill comes to as they are such lovely people.

The only way to put it into business is to give it a go... go small to start with and let it build up... being great with every person who visits is the key as they then will tell someone else and they are sure to come along... If you don't try you will never know

 

Hi Rob,

I don't do it as a business, but........

I quite like Fuchsias and every winter I grow probably around 300/400 from cuttings. They don't take up much room ( which is a good job as I live in a flat on the 8th floor ) and then come the spring I send a lot out by mail ( a lot of members on here have had my cuttings as swaps for other plants/seeds etc ). The rest go to family and friends etc.

It is definitely something I would look into sometime in the future however not as a business.

I remember when I first started growing Fuchsias about 20 years ago there was a lady who lived about 10 miles from me who used to grow them and she used to advertise in the local papers ( just in the small ads gardening section ) and you could ring her up and go and have a look and buy what you wanted. She used to start off about 20 different varieties every 3/4 weeks and that way she'd keep like a rolling stock of all sorts on the go, plus, if there was anything she grew and didn't have at the time of your visit she'd start it off for you.

 

You would also need to check out planning consent if you are changing the use of your land and if it becomes a business then you would need to pay Business rates on it. Also ,if you are having the public visit then you would need Public Liability Insurance.

 

I can see that I have to set up this GC online seeds/plants/flowers/etc store myself...