Archive for August, 2006

Markets for Your Plants

Dime, chain, variety, grocery, drug, and department stores and even pet stores and cafes-all these can become your customers. These outlets usually have to purchase the plant material they sell and generally have the plants shipped in from out-of-town wholesale growers. Look over the plants and seeds at these retail counters. If you feel you could make money by being a wholesaler and selling a store similar plant items at about M to /2 the price that you see they are charging the public, seek out the manager and have a talk with him. It may be to his advantage to obtain plants from a nearby source-such as you-rather than risk shipping delays, etc.

Your plants will in all probability be fresher than those shipped in. Since you escape the high overhead that most of the larger plant houses have to contend with, you not only can sell for less but you can also probably safely offer to replace poor plant specimens such as those that have become ragged through customer handling. You can bring back the flats and pots of plants to your greenhouse, spray the plants to kill insects, give them a little time to rejuvenate, and then offer them again, for they will be as good as new. This additional service will undoubtedly please the buyer and help you make additional sales; it will also get your plants out of your greenhouse and exposed to customer traffic in a display room or area.

Once you have established yourself, the buyer is likely to go on from his first cautious dealings to purchasing some of the unusual (and more profitable) plants you grow-cacti, new philodendrons, pilea, peperomias, and such flowering gesneriads as columnea, kohleria, and species gloxinias. You may find yourself growing specialties just for one outlet, which will want even more than you can grow (a pleasant and profitable experience).

When you arrange sales to a large chain store, you may be asked to ship sample plants direct to their central buying station. If you get the O.K. there, you will be placed on the preferred list, and from then on you should be able to count on this store as a regular outlet.

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Prices differ considerably when you become the wholesaler. Then you are selling plants to the retailer, who may be a florist, a buyer for a department store or supermarket, or for one of the larger plant and seed houses. With these concerns, you are told exactly how many plants you will be expected to produce in a given time. The firm sends an order and takes the plants off your hands as soon as they are ready to be shipped. With deliveries dispensed with and no leftover plants, you can cheerfully sell them at about M or M the retail price.

But remember one thing: When you start selling specified quantities to dealers or stores, you are in the “big leagues.” Your greenhouse operation may lose all semblance of a hobby. You are a regular business man and as such you must live up to your commitments. The profits will be greater than in a smalltime operation limited to your neighborhood, but responsibilities will be greater, too. Your business will increase as your reputation for reliability increases.

The Sales Approach

There are several methods of letting the world know you have plants for sale. Your own city may be just the right spot to market your wares, If so, you can write to the managers of plant departments in the various stores telling them what you are growing. List the price for specialty items, making certain to show at least one “leader,” such as a common plant sold below the usual price (quantity limited to a certain number per customer). If you prefer not to start off by offering even one cut-price leader, offer at least one plant you have not seen in the stores and which you feel sure will be in demand once it is displayed. In this category would come any of the unusual gesneriads, “new” plants such as pink-flecked hypoestis or trailing plectranthus, or even an uncommon type or form of a common plant. Include with the letter your telephone number as well as a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Your letter might look like this:

John Q. Buyer, Purchasing Agent

Plant Counter

Review Department Store

Address

Dear Mr. Buyer:

I am able to supply unusual house plants and good gardenplants in quantities which I believe will be sufficient for your needs. I have attached a price list. You will find the prices attractive, and I can promise immediate delivery.

If you would like to see samples of these plants I will be happy to bring them to your office.

Sincerely,John M.

Smith House Plant

Haven Address-Phone

Or you can telephone for an appointment, but don’t try to make actual sales over the telephone. Most buyers disapprove of such methods, so why risk a potential customer? One of the best sales methods I have found is to put some plants in my car, drive up to a roadside market or to a store with a plant counter, and show them to the buyer.

We have a roadside market about 5 miles from us. The people who manage it are good merchants and their plants are always beautifully displayed. After looking at their house plant display, which consisted of the usual items, begonias, rather ordinary geraniums, and African violets with plain leaves and flowers, I suggested they add some of the species gloxinias, newer types of African violets, and some small foliage plants- hypoestis, in particular. They weren’t interested enough to ask me to bring samples. I decided, however, that this was a good market for these plants and that the proprietors had only to see the plants to realize their market value.

Accordingly, I loaded some of each kind into the car and showed them. These people had never before seen these plants and thought them extremely beautiful and salable. They bought all I had with me and since then they’ve been steady customers.

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If You Want to Be a Retailer

There are certain things you should know if you plan a retail business (selling directly to customers). For example, you may have to pay higher insurance premiums than you would on a pure hobby greenhouse. Here the insurance agent takes into consideration injuries which might be incurred by a customer while he is on your property, and damage your plants might suffer from hail, wind, or fire. Your real estate taxes, too, may be increased somewhat. It is wise to check these items before planning your method of operation. Your agent can give you all the facts about rates, and the Commissioner of Taxes will help you with the tax problem. After checking, you may find that the extra insurance and taxes will be negligible-or so severe as to affect your plans seriously.

You can arrive at a fair price for your retail merchandise by examining prices listed on similar items in a number of seed and nursery catalogs and by visiting local greenhouses and flower shops.

Should you be so fortunate as to have some indoor or garden plant not in catalogs, and should this plant have out-of-the-ordinary flowers or foliage, you will find collectors and perhaps general gardeners so eager to buy it that you can set your own price. For example, among a group of gesneriad seedlings, I discovered an unusual one. It proved to be Rechsteineria purpurea, a gesneriad which hasn’t been in general cultivation since the middle of the nineteenth century. I haven’t had greenhouse space to propagate more of this, but I have been able to sell thousands of seeds from it.

Browse through the catalogs and you may discover seed or plants entirely new to your community. Start out by planting some of them. If they are reasonably easy to grow, they may

37. A definite asset to the looks of the property, and a vigorous asset

to the cash register, is this retail “shop” and auxiliary growing area

attached to the efficient greenhouse. (Courtesy, Lord & Burnham)

prove to be extra profitable plants for you to handle in your retail operation. Information on other aspects of this phase of home greenhouse business will be found in Chapter 23, “Hybridizing and Marketing New Varieties.”

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Price your plants realistically. Before setting a price, total your upkeep, such as the original cost of seed, cuttings, plants, tubers, or bulbs; your pots and potting material; and an approximately proportional share of heat, light, and water, fertilizer, insecticides, and greenhouse deterioration.

Take into consideration, too, the customers you will serve. If you are offering a general, popular selection of plants and you aim to capture the trade of the home town folks, you may have to meet local competitive prices. Also, because your venture is new (as is your reputation), your merchandise will have to be as good as and preferably better than plant items available elsewhere in town. What’s more, you’ll have to maintain high standards to keep your customers coming back for more.

If you intend to sell through the mail, you should check with catalogs and other listings to arrive at a fair price for your plants.” . . . . The Best Policy”

Before we go further in this sales discussion, there’s an extremely important point about marketing I want to bring up. It is obvious but worth emphasizing: In all your advertising and promotional material, even on plant labels and the like-in other words, in all your dealings with the public-observe that old maxim about honesty. I don’t mean actual, obvious dishonesty but that borderline thing called “deception.” For instance, wouldn’t it be a form of dishonesty or fraud-or at least unethical business conduct-to promote the sale of a “new” plant when it is really only an old plant species with a newly coined name? But you can stimulate sales by giving an old-time plant a more catchy and salable name while avoiding any taint of deception. Simply give prominence to the proper botanical name right after the new name.

If you sell plants, bulbs, or seeds meant for outdoor culture, you are a part of the nursery industry. The Federal Trade Commission has on its books a very strong and inclusive set of “honest business” laws-called F.T.C. Trade Practice Rules- that were issued specifically for the nursery industry. The previously cited example of deceptive naming is just one of the many practices covered by these rules. If you want to see all of them you can obtain a copy of the rules from the Commission (Washington 25, D.C.) or perhaps from your local Better Business Bureau. (Incidentally, the B.B.B., even more than the F.T.C, is the public’s first line of defense against unscrupulous businessmen. Suffice it now to emphasize that these rules do exist, and they have teeth. But they are no threat to the operator who is always on the up and up, who knows that customer confidence (resulting in repeat trade) is the greatest business asset.

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The price you charge for your plants will depend on whether you sell finished or unfinished stock, and whether your enterprise is a full-time business or just a profitable sideline or self-supporting hobby. In this and some of the succeeding chapters you will find discussion of large-scale, home greenhouse growing and sales operations. If your business is small, you may not need all of the information now. However, the plain purpose of this is to make sure that if and when you expand your plants-for-profit horizons, you will be forewarned and forearmed with important information to guide you all along the way.

“Finished stock” means plants that have reached a size or state of growth where they have decorative value. This can mean flowering plants, such as African violets, begonias, and gloxinias when they are in bloom-and-bud or in full bloom, or foliage plants potted and of large enough size to be attractive.

“Unfinished stock” refers to young, undeveloped plants. This can mean seedlings like annuals sold from flats or pots; started or dormant begonia, gloxinia, and other tubers or bulbs in pots; cuttings, either rooted or un-rooted; and small foliage or other fibrous-rooted plants. Since it requires time and expense to bring a plant to maturity, finished stock should sell at a considerably higher price than unfinished plants in the seedling or dormant stage. (Actually the common trade term for dealing in dormant bulbs and seeds, either loose or packaged, is “dry sales.”)

Large commercial firms expect their plants to earn a profit of approximately $2.00 to $3.00 per square yard of greenhouse space. If you are carrying your greenhouse operation only to make a little extra money and you have a low overhead because you are doing your own work, then you, too, will be satisfied with such a minimum return. However, with a bit more effort you can extract the full potential from your greenhouse by planting crops which will return a profit of between $4.50 and $5.50 per square yard of space. You’ll see how as we go along.

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Plant Division

Most plants capable of being reproduced through leaf cuttings can also be propagated through plant division. Most perennials-artemisia, campanula, hosta, and peonies-and the majority of house plants can be thus divided.

Use your hands to separate the plants or, in the case of heavy rooted hostas or peonies, use a sharp knife or spade.

Divisions are then planted and rooted or grown on in the greenhouse, cold frame, or perhaps in the garden.

Planting Seeds

One of the most economical methods of reproduction is through seed. Fine seed like that of most house plants is sprinkled lightly over a moistened medium, then covered with glass or plastic, and placed in a warm (70- to 85-degree) germination spot. Larger seed of some vegetables, perennials, and annuals is planted in soil or other growing media and then covered

35. Here is a propagation method that is just as simple as it looks. The gloxinia leaves, inserted in vermiculite, get the moisture they need (after initial watering) from the water-filled pot reservoir in the center of the rooting pot. The bottom hole of the small clay pot is sealed so that water seeps evenly into the vermiculite through the pot’s porous walls. (Photograph by Roche)

36. Let it snow the seedlings are coming through the soil and the

well-ordered greenhouse promises healthy plant development. A variety

of good cash crops is in the offing. (Photograph by Roche)

to its own depth with sifted soil. As soon as plants have formed true leaves, they are transplanted to flats of soil or individual pots.

Ferns from Spores

There are few fern specialists in the United States, so ferns might prove a profitable crop for your greenhouse. There are many kinds and they have many uses indoors and out. Ferns are propagated through spores those brown spots appearing on the underside of the fronds. As ferns develop their powdery spores, cut away the entire frond and place it in a paper or plastic bag. The spores will mature in 3 to 4 weeks and be ready for sowing on milled sphagnum moss or sand and leafmold. When the new plants show several leaves, transplant to 2-inch pots of porous soil.

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Air-Layering

If you want to produce more plants from an aged and ungainly rubber plant or dieffenbachia, make a slit in the stem just below some shapely top growth. Moisten a handful of sphagnum moss and place it around the slit stem; then wrap with polyethylene plastic. Secure the plastic and moss packing, top and bottom with rubber bands or with the covered-wire Twist-Ems. Keep the moss moist-which is not much of a job since the plastic blocks the passage of water vapor while permitting the passage of air. Indeed, you may not have to water but once during the usual 6-week rooting period. When the ball of moss is filled with roots, cut the stem below the

33. Producing new varieties is often profitable for the home greenhouse operator. The more you know about the flower structure of different plants the better your chances for success. These are begonia flowers: a male or pollen-bearing flower on the left and a female or pollen-receiving and seed-producing flower on the right. (Photograph by Travis Studio)

roots and put the “new” plant in good greenhouse soil. You can keep the old plant too, for it probably will sprout new foliage. This type of propagation is called air-layering. Soil layering is based on the same principles; but in this method, stems are bent down to the soil and rooted there.

34. This is a picture story (counter clockwise) of making money with gloxinias, from pin-point-sized seeds and pin-head seedlings to a small mail-order sized plant and a larger cash-and-carry specimen. Photograph

by Roche)

Propagating Bulbs and Tubers

You can break off scales from an Easter lily bulb and root them in any medium. Likewise the scales from rhizomatous gesneriads, achimenes, kohlerias, and smithianthas; each scale acts as a seed and produces a new plant. Tubers of tuberous-rooted begonias and gloxinias can be divided so long as there is at least one eye (growing point) for each division. These can be started into new growth in almost any medium.

The common amaryllis and many other amaryllids, as well as hyacinths, can be propagated by scooping or gouging out the bottom of the bulb, or by making slashes in the base. Then the bulbs are planted in sphagnum moss or sand and given bottom heat of 70 degrees; they will form new bulblets in the cut areas.

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African violets, gloxinias, and other gesneriads, rex begonias, peperomia, hoya, echeveria, and sedums are among the many plants you can propagate from single leaves. Cut the leaf off with about inch of petiole (leaf stem) and insert it in sand, sphagnum moss, vermiculite, or a mixture of all three, right up to the edge of the leaf blade. If you are using a heating coil for faster propagating, keep the soil temperature about 75 degrees and the air temperature 70 degrees.

You can transplant the cuttings to 2-inch pots after 2 or 3 weeks, or you can leave them in the propagating case until they show new plants usually in about a month and then transplant them. If you have some especially nice geraniums you want to increase, try propagating them through the leaf-bud system. In each leaf axil (the point where leaf stem joins plant stem), there appears a small bud of new growth. Make your leaf cutting so this growth bud remains attached and propagate as you would single leaf cuttings. With this method you will get many more cuttings per plant than if you had taken regular slips. These cuttings root within 10 days. Azaleas, bougainvillea,

31. Seedlings are delicate. Transplanting them from a crowded seed flat (as with these coleus seedlings) to a growing flat should be done gently but quickly to prevent drying of root hairs or excessive wilting of plants. (Photograph by Roche)

chrysanthemum, and croton are some others to propagate through the leaf-bud method.

With rare varieties of rex begonia or gloxinia, you can multiply your stock by another leaf-cutting method. Take a leaf and slice through the large veins in several places. Insert the cut-

32. An all-plastic propagating case-glass would be just as good but not so durable-will make short work of rooting gloxinia and African violet leaves. The combination of strong, all-around light and high humidity does the trick. (Courtesy, House Plant Corner)

veined leaf in a propagating case, in moist sand, and little plants will form at each of the cuts.

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Patio landscaping can be redone every year if you like. If you are planning a new landscape for a brand new patio or making over an old patio, it is important to start with fresh clean concrete, stone, or brick. The foundation for your patio is the most important factor and one that will make your patio landscaping a place for your whole family to enjoy.

Hard scaping your patio

When it comes to the materials that you use for your patio, the decision is entirely up to you. Any hard material will do, it just depends on your preference. You can choose from stone, rock, concrete, brick or even get fancy with tile. Choose a material that best describes your space and suits your family’s style and needs. All of the above materials make a great looking and durable patio for any family to relax in.

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Maintaining your trees

If you are planting a tree you should choose a tree with a burlap-covered root ball that is equal to the roundness of the trunk and the size of the crown. If you are looking for a tree make sure that there are no cuts in the bark. Dig the hole the same as the diameter of the tree trunk.

Borders

Trees serve as great borders to any property or home. They deliver not only beauty but they also provide a number of extra features. They add privacy to a home that is in the open. Line up pine or maple trees and you will block out unwanted intruders from peaking in on you. Trees also protect your home from wind and sun. They provide shade in the summer and block the wind to provide warmth in the winter.

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